The Power of Coaching Partnerships in Leadership Development with Patrick Kennedy

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, host Pedro sits down with Patrick Kennedy, leadership coach and founder of Magnolia Coaching and Consulting, to explore what truly effective leadership coaching looks like. With over 20 years of experience in complex healthcare environments, Patrick shares his leadership origin story, how coaching became a calling, and why he believes coaching is a true partnership, not a prescription.

Patrick unpacks his strengths-based approach to leadership development, explains why clarity around your ideal client is critical for coaches, and offers an honest look at pricing, packaging, and capacity in a growing coaching business. From building confidence to helping leaders feel “lighter” after a session, this conversation highlights how powerful coaching can be when it’s client-driven, authentic, and grounded in real-world experience.

Whether you’re a coach, aspiring leader, or healthcare professional looking to grow, this episode delivers practical insights and meaningful perspective on leadership, coaching, and impact.

Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-kennedy-30470929/
Website: https://www.magnoliacoachingconsulting.com/

Transcript

Patrick Kennedy 0:00

I want to help people grow in their journey, in their leadership journey specifically. Leadership that you feel like you need to explore, that you want to learn about. And then from there, that can help us, that can help direct us in the path that we need to go down from a coaching partnership standpoint. I really do see coaching as a true partnership between the individual and myself. One of the things I've really found become a passion of mine is helping people identify and use their strengths. I really believe that if you can identify and use your strengths and focus on that, you can become an even better leader.

Davis Nguyen 0:39

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 1:10

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today's guest is Patrick Kennedy, a leadership coach with more than 20 years of experience guiding individuals and teams toward personal and performance growth. With a background in complex healthcare environments, his work is grounded in real operational and leadership challenges. As the owner of Magnolia Coaching and Consulting, Patrick helps clients build self-awareness, leverage their strengths, and grow as a leader. His approach is thoughtful, strategic, and people-centered, supporting leaders as they pursue meaningful progress in both work and life. Welcome to the show, Patrick. Thanks, Pedro. I appreciate the opportunity to be with you. It's great to have you. And Patrick, I always like to go to that first edition of the comic book, the origin story. So rewinding a little bit. Yeah, it's an interesting question.

Patrick Kennedy 2:18

I like the the kind of the first version of the comic book, if you will. And I I think there's a couple points I would say. One's pretty recent, but one really, as I reflect back, now that I've I've been doing coaching for about five or six years, I can even look back to when I was in high school. And so there is as far as I like to share in that scenario, is um in in my high school years, um, I was an athlete, played baseball and basketball, soccer. I was the team captain for the baseball and basketball team my senior year. And I now as I look back and um I remember um it was baseball practice um one day, and um we were doing some game simulation, and something didn't quite go right. The play wasn't with me, the ball was hit in a different direction, and my teammate made an error. And the coach did not go to the player that made the error. He came to me and he got face to face with me and of exerting himself as you're the leader on the field. And as I look back now, I kind of look at that situation as like, whoa, that was the almost the first kind of example of someone looking at me as a leader. And so there was a higher expectation that I put on myself as a leader. And so that as I kind of fast forwards and throughout my career, I took very seriously the responsibility of leading other people. In my early days, I I like to say I think I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants, so to speak. And yes, I was leading other people. I think I did it well, but now having gone through a coach training process, having read dozens of leadership books, learning how to be a better, more effective leader of people, it really kind of resonates that I didn't really know what I was doing. How going having those experiences over the 20 plus years, going through coach training, et cetera, I'm learning more and I can appreciate more how to be a more effective leader of people. So that kind of brings me up to about the 2021 timeframe. And this is where the truest sense of leadership coaching kind of starts to come into play a little bit for me. And I had a leader at the time who was very invested in my growth, who wanted to see me excel, who wanted to see me take the next logical step within the organization to become an executive leader in that organization. And so that person is very profound for me because they they saw the potential in me. They saw the growth opportunity in me. They were giving me opportunities, situations to be, to be able to be exposed to more, which would in turn help me grow as a leader. And that's how I got into coaching. That person said, you know, I really think you need an executive coach. I was like, what is coaching? I have no idea. I've never heard of this kind of you know, partnership and relationship with with the with an executive coach. And so in 2020, 2021, I had my first experience with an executive coach. And that person is actually still my coach today. I still have that person today as my coach. And that person also, just like now, I can appreciate my investment in my clients. That executive coach who is still my coach today is was invested in me, was invested in my growth and my ability to advance as a leader, but also as a coach. And so they said, You you would be a, I think you would be a really great coach. And I was like, tell me more. What does that mean? So I was very curious about that because I I'd always appreciated, always enjoyed the leadership aspect of things, of leading a team, of helping a team become more cohesive and collaborate with one another to get the job done most effectively and enjoy doing it, enjoy getting along, enjoy um the work that they were doing. And it wasn't so much about the work as it was the relationships that we were building with with one another through that process. And so I went through the coach training, became a certified um coach, pretty rigorous process. The program is international coaching certification, federation certified, ICF certified program. So it was a pretty rigorous process. And then I began uh coaching internal clients at the organization that I worked for, and I found a lot of um enjoyment out of that for for myself because I saw how I was helping other people. And it it was really about how they were growing and how they were progressing, not about me, which is the essence of coaching. It's about the other person. How can I support and help them grow as an individual and whatever it is that they they want to become? So, a story there, I was coaching an internal client at that organization, and they were really stuck in their professional career. They were struggling with some time management things, organizational skills, but there was something bigger. And as we continued to navigate the coaching relationship and the coaching partnership, it became clear that they really hadn't found their passion, what they really wanted to do, what their dream job was. And so as we continued to navigate that through the coaching relationship, and the opportunity that this person had always wanted became available. And that person shared with me that it was through the coaching partnership that they gained the confidence in themselves to be able to pursue this opportunity. That they may never have pursued this opportunity if they didn't have built that confidence and done the work in themselves. And that came from the coaching partnership that we have or had. They applied for the job, they got the job, they're flourishing. So that's really the passion that I've found in being a leadership coach is to help other people. And I'll use another quick story. I was just recently working with a client, and one of the things that tells me this is going well. There's something really good happening here is as we navigate sessions, and this one particular client that I have, at the end of the session, they said, I feel lighter, like there's a weight lifted off. And so we've navigated through a situation that they now feel confident, more confident in themselves to be able to push forward and solve the problem. And that helps not just them grow in their leadership, but it helps the people that they're leading grow as well.

Pedro 9:37

Okay. You know, I find so fascinating the fact that, like, for example, you were exposed to coaching, right? In your baseball practice. But down the line, you find yourself asking, what is coaching into exactly this space? So I wonder what will happen in a hundred year a hundred years from now, right? Because I I also see this, I'm 39, I'm not sure how old you are, but we get it so easily the concept of coaching, for example, baseball practice, but we don't fully understand the concept of coaching to business, right? Which it's so obvious when you when you think about it, right? It's just someone who's been there, done that, will accelerate your your progress, and down the line will help you get results. So it's so simple, but at the same time, I find it fascinating because to us sometimes it's kind of an alien concept, but we're always evolving, right? And I also like the fact that you had some you were working towards coaching, then uh you finally got your own business that we're talking pre-podcast for at least a year, right? In Magnolia. And after you got rolling, right, who are the people that kept showing up? The ones you realized, okay, these are my people, uh, this is my ICP, you know?

Patrick Kennedy 10:55

Yeah, and early on in in the process of developing the business, and where did I want to focus? There were a number of people that I connected with just from a learning process of how do I build this business and where do I focus? And there was a mixed bag of well, you need to start broad and then drill down to who your ideal client profile or ICP is. There were some that said, no, you need to define it now and start to focus on that now early on. And so I I went down the ladder route. I narrowed it down from the beginning based on the guidance that I got. And I think this is extremely important in helping people who maybe want to jump into um a coaching business for themselves or in an organization to help speed up that time and not have to go through the trials and errors maybe that I did and some other people did, is I I really do think you need to get clear from the beginning on who you want to serve. And so the analogy I like to use there is you you can't boil the ocean. You know, you're you're not gonna, as an individual coach, you're not gonna serve millions of people. So don't boil the ocean. Spend some time, be be very thoughtful, spend some time reflecting on who you've been, where you've been, the experiences that you've had, and how does that, how can you leverage that to best serve your clients? And so for me, my entire professional career has been in healthcare. And so my ideal client is the early to mid-career healthcare professional who is looking to grow in their leadership abilities, whether they actually lead people today or they don't, who is looking to grow in their leadership capabilities. Maybe they want to get into an entry-level leadership position. Maybe they're looking to advance to an executive level leadership position. And that has helped me be more clear in how I can help those individuals because I've been there. That that was my path was moving up through leadership within a healthcare institution or multiple healthcare institutions, actually. So I think it is important and can save people time. It can speed up, if you will, some of the other aspects of the business to get very clear from the or try to get clear from the beginning, who do you really want to serve? What is your niche? What is your ideal client look like?

Pedro 13:43

Yeah. And uh I think that positioning also, just to highlight what you said, it helps, you know, so you're not being treated as a commodity. Because if you're trying to help everyone, you're easily comparable, right? But if you're you you're having that specific niche, the healthcare industry, like you said, you're the go-to guy for healthcare, people that are looking you up. And I think that's very powerful. And people sometimes they often they think they're saying no to uh millions of people, that's not what usually shows in reality. It's just easier for people that actually need you to find you, if that makes any sense, right? So yeah, I agree with that 100%. So, okay. I mean, that's the coaching side. We talked about your RCP, your origin. Now let's talk about the part nobody skips, right? Marketing. So how do people usually find you?

Patrick Kennedy 14:36

I do have a website. The social media platform that I've chosen to use is LinkedIn. That's you know, in my opinion, the most professional social media platform out there right now. I think that is where my ideal clients are, whether it's an individual or whether it's an organization. Um, and so that that's the those are the main two sources that that I have right now. The third one, which I think is really most powerful, are the connections, the individual one-on-one connections that I make with people. And most of the probably more than 50%. I don't know what percentage actually it would be, but more than 50%, the people I'm talking to or connecting with may not be my actual client. They may not be my ICP, but they probably know someone that I need to talk to that could become a client, again, whether it's an individual or an organization. As I started um in early 25 and building the business, one of my who has now become a mentor of mine, one of the things he highly recommended for me was a book called The Prosperous Coach. It's by Steve Chandler and Rich Lipton. And he recommended that book to me, and it was very uh transformational for me in building the business from a marketing standpoint because I don't come from a marketing background. I'm not a salesperson, and I I would argue that most coaches probably are not. That's not the place that they come from. And that book was very transformational for me because it gives a roadmap, if you will, of how to really kind of use coaching as marketing for yourself and growing your business. And so it took going back to what I said earlier about the client I was helping to lift the weight, that really lifted the weight of me thinking about I had to go out there and find like this marketing firm to do all these traditional kind of marketing things and and avenues. And it became more my mindset became more of making the connections with people and using my coaching skills and training and my relationship building to be able to build the business from a marketing sense, if you will.

Pedro 17:03

That's interesting. All right. I mean, let's talk business for a second, right? So people find you via your website or LinkedIn, like you mentioned. So let's picture this. They resonate with your work, and eventually they want to know what working with Patrick 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?

Patrick Kennedy 17:28

Yeah, you know, uh early on in that process, I want it to feel very natural. I want it to feel like we have a connection that can help that individual grow. I go back to the true sense of coaching in that I want to help people grow in their journey and their leadership journey specifically. So I want it to be as easy as possible from the very beginning. I want to understand what are some of the goals and aspects that uh of leadership that you feel like you need to explore, that you want to learn about. And then from there, that can help us, that can help direct us in the path that we need to go down from a coaching partnership standpoint. And I I really do see coaching as a true partnership between the individual and myself. One of the things I've really found become a passion of mine is helping people identify and use their strengths. I really believe that if you if you can identify and use your strengths and focus on that, you can become an even better leader. We all have, if you want to call them weaknesses, it is what it is, a weakness or an opportunity, if you will. Believe you're gonna advance as a leader if you all you do is focus on the weaknesses that you have. I really believe it's focusing on the strengths. So I share that to say, as I'm navigating the coaching partnership, I'm looking for the strengths that that individual has in their leadership and how to help them build upon the strengths that they already have. We're not ignoring your weaknesses, but if that comes up, there's likely another leader in your organization or a leader you've had in the past or somebody outside the organization where you can partner with that person and learn from that person to help bridge that gap of a weakness. And so what people could could expect from me is I'm very authentic. I'm gonna show up for you day in and day out, however frequently we meet and navigate. I'm gonna be very respectful. I'm gonna be very attuned to what it is you want to work on. I'm gonna listen. I think that's an extremely important aspect of coaching. And it's it's not just the coaching process, if you will. It's not, in my opinion, and what I've come to learn. Works best with people is it's not a prescription, right? It's not just a step-by-step, here's what happens in the coaching process with an individual. My mentor coach shared with me that there are a lot of people who she comes across in her work as a mentor coach, where they're just following the process that process that they learned in their coaching training. And in my opinion, that doesn't evoke the awareness. That's not serving the client. It's just following a process. And so in the process, um, coaching relationship, I should say. It's unique for each individual. The pasts that I have with each client now are are many. I'm not on the same path with every single client because it's client-driven. I'm really focused on helping and supporting them, meeting them where they are, and how do we get to where they want to be?

Pedro 21:00

Okay. I mean, your work seems pretty hands-on. We're talking about almost to a custom experience so you can understand what exactly is going through that clients because they might have to overcome or accept their weaknesses. So that being said, how do you think about capacity? So you don't stretch yourself too thin.

Patrick Kennedy 21:19

That's something um I'm thinking a lot about right now as I look forward to 2026 and and the years beyond. Um, I could certainly be busier right now. I've I've got capacity to have more clients. But as some things hopefully come to fruition in in the new year, I'm definitely thinking about capacity. I had the great fortune, I do have another executive coach on contract with me and within Magnolia. And so that's the way I'm thinking about being able to scale and expand is to be able to have other coaches that are of the same mindset as me from a coaching partnership perspective. Not that they necessarily had the same background or the same experiences or anything like that, but just the same philosophy and mission to want to help and serve other people and add value to other people. So that's my capacity, you know, thought mindset right now is how can I leverage some of the contracts, opportunity out there to have other people support and join the business.

Pedro 22:36

Okay. You know, Patrick, one thing every coach wrestles with at some point is pricing. And I'm gonna talk about hard numbers, but how to package their work, right? Because we see a lot, like this is more of a self-worth path, you know, lonely road we're talking about. Some people, when they dive into coaching as a business, they're like, Oh, should I charge X, Y, and Z? Am I charging enough? Am I charging too much? Am I placing myself out of the market? You know, so how do you think it about today? And were there any lessons along the way that shape how you landed where you are?

Patrick Kennedy 23:12

It's interesting you say that coaches wrestle with this. I agree with that. I've wrestled with that. The other executive coach that I that I have as a contract in the business, we talk about this, it seems like every time that we get together and talk is what do our prices look like? How do they compare? And there's not a lot out there. There is a report out there, um, and I I think it's Paper Bell, which is a coach coaching company. They put out a report, I think from 2024, if I remember remember correctly. But anyway, it's out there that helps give a little bit of perspective, but it is so wide open. I've talked with folks that were willing to share their rates, and there's some out there that are you know in the thousands um per month. If you get up to the executive level of leadership coaching, you know, you could be pushing three, four, five thousand a month. You've got some that are you know more in the hundreds. And so I don't think that there's you know a hard and fast rule. I think where I've landed is I've got to be comfortable when I'm having a conversation with somebody. I've got to be comfortable saying, this is my number, this is where we are. And you mentioned packaging. I think packaging is an important aspect of it, whether it's with an organization or whether it's just with an individual. And packaging with an individual may look like you know, three three-month engagement. From a coaching standpoint, I really wouldn't go less than three months. It's hard to see some of that transformational work and people come to fruition in less than three months if you're only doing one or two coaching sessions a month. Three, you know, packaging individual coaching in three months, six months, maybe even 12 months periods of time. And then with organization, the way I look at it is most of the time with organizations, it's likely some type of training, training that's going on. And then the individual one-on-one coaching can be an add-on to that. So that's in my mind what the packaging looks like from an organizational or an individual standpoint. But the pricing, the pricing is a little bit of a challenging. It feels like the Wild West, sort of. Everybody's kind of doing their own thing.

Pedro 25:39

Yeah, yeah, that's true. And you know, of course, whenever like we're talking about pricing, and we see a lot of ways that people are doing it. Sometimes they're comparing to the investment, the ROI they did, like getting a certification, for example. Or sometimes they're not tying the results to a clock, but to the results itself, right? The outcomes itself. So that really varies. And depending on the ICP, that could be in an exponential number. Like if you're helping a business got 100 million to 500 million between coaching sessions, how much that's worth it, right? So it really is a mix of both, and also like whatever they're in the top of their mind. Sometimes we see crazy numbers, sometimes we don't. So people doing it for free and doing amazing work. So yeah, I agree with that. I would say, yeah, that's definitely a wild west. Okay.

Patrick Kennedy 26:31

You mentioned the value aspect of things. That I think that's spot on. Um, you know, it it's not like going to the grocery store and buying a gallon of milk, right? Or going to, you know, the hardware store and buying some piece of equipment that you need, and the price is kind of upset. It really is the Wild West. And I think from a coaching standpoint, it is about the value that the other person is going to receive and and can gain from the coaching relationship. One of the things I like to say, and I when I'm having conversations with people, and they ask, well, you know, how much does it cost? What does pricing look like? Is what are your dreams worth to you? What are your dreams worth to you? And that is the value proposition, really, I think, from a coaching relationship. I I don't get it as an hourly rate. I don't calculate it that way. It really is more of a value proposition for the client, what they're getting out of it.

Pedro 27:32

Yeah, that's a solid look and how you approach price and structure. I like that, the packaging and not uh tying up to a clock. Now, you know, I'm curious about where we're we're in all this, right? So 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?

Patrick Kennedy 27:51

Yeah, there there are quite a few. You know, it quite a few opportunities that I'm excited about. There are a couple um a handful of opportunities, potential opportunities um that hopefully will come to fruition in in 2026. They're they're mostly organizations that are looking to grow their leaders and their leaders' capabilities and effectiveness. Those come to fruition. I'm definitely gonna have to expand the business. And again, back to what I said earlier, the way I'm looking at that is being able to bring on contract coaches to be able to help with some of the training, more likely to help with some of the one-on-one individual coaching sessions and engagements that we have. So very excited about what 2020, the potential that 2026 uh holds for me. And and and there's some exciting stuff out there.

Pedro 28:46

That's cool. I mean, of course, whenever we're aiming towards the next chapter, there's always something we're refining in the present, right? Um, so what are you currently trying to improve or tighten up in your business right now?

Patrick Kennedy 28:57

Yeah, it's it's the scenes processes, it's it's the aspects of of things. How do I create, refine this funnel? As I have, you know, connections with clients as uh say, okay, here's the services that we offer. How does that continue to build upon not just the one-on-one coaching? Because the the one-on-one coaching is where I think I've experienced, and I think my clients have experienced the true transformation. But you're you're not seeing this from other people. I've heard this from other people, and I think in the first year I've experienced this. I'm not gonna grow the coaching business that I want only doing one-on-one coaching. So I've got to be able to build these other aspects of it. And so as I'm going forward, I'm thinking about what are the right levers I want to pull and the services that I want to provide and offer that will help to build the business going forward. Um and kind of going back to what I said behind the scenes, how do I support those things, you know, administratively and make sure I execute, get them done, and are able to deliver.

Pedro 30:11

I really like that. And you know, the concept you have clear in your head, that's the the one and one won won't won't because there's only so much you can do, right? In terms of scale. And the one and one really is impactful, obviously, and you're working towards coaching contractors, right? To be able to handle also that. But towards if you're trying to impact more people, that will be a challenge, right? Uh exclusively to the one-on-ones. And I I I that's that's very insightful. Obviously, you're looking for quality, you're not just trying to push something that wouldn't work. So yeah, I get it. I mean, I love that. And and if listening wants to connect with you or follow your work, Patrick, where can people find you and connect with you?

Patrick Kennedy 30:55

Yeah, the the best is is LinkedIn. Follow me, connect on LinkedIn, send me a direct message on LinkedIn. Um, always love having conversations, even if you know that person's not gonna become a client, just connecting with people, getting to know people. I've I've told to a number of my kind of inner circle folks recently, but in in this year, 2025, I feel like I've made more connections and and grown um relationships more than I probably ever did in the 20 years in healthcare. So with LinkedIn is the place, uh, they are more than welcome um to visit the website. There's a contact me form on the website, send me a direct email, which my email address is on the website. But I I enjoy interacting with people on LinkedIn and seeing what what other people are posting and learning from them as well. Yeah, that LinkedIn is probably the the best.

Pedro 31:50

Okay. You know, there were a few things you shared today that really stuck with me. I would say, you know, that origin story with uh simulation game on your baseball practice and your coach calling you out, like, hey man, I mean it's not his problem, it's a we problem, and you're the leader here, so step up. I love that, you know. Uh really like that. And that's one of the reasons I asked the origin story because you don't it's not overnight that you turn into a coach, it's something that's coming from you know your past and and and you had. So I really like that. I also like the fact about the mixed, you know, bag of the finding the ICP, like the clarity and who you want to serve, you know, health, the health industry, you know, healthcare industry. I like that. Yeah, the way you approached it, you know, like you were in the crossroads, should I try to embrace the entire world or should I niche down? So I like the the transparency of that. And also when we talked about pricing, right? That's such a taboo uh in the coaching space and such a wild west, like you said. We see crazy numbers, we see people that are not charging enough, it really is crazy. And whenever you think about it, like I've seen people doing pro bono and doing amazing work, and some people doing terrible work at 10k, you know, whatever, 5k an hour or whatever they they come with. So yeah, I really appreciate what you do, and I appreciate you being here and sharing soul trends so openly today, okay? It was great having you on Patrick.

Patrick Kennedy 33:21

Thank you, Pedro. I appreciate the time and conversation. Thanks.

Davis Nguyen 33:24

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 scout your business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, or even $100,000 weeks, all without burning out and making sure that you're making an impact and having the life that you want. To learn more about our community and how we can help you, visit join purplecircle.com.