From Corporate Guardrails to Winning Your Hour with Robert Marshall

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, host Pedro sits down with Robert Marshall, a former global program management executive turned coach, to explore the mindset and productivity shifts required when moving from corporate leadership to solo entrepreneurship.

Robert shares how the guardrails that once structured his corporate life disappeared overnight—and how he intentionally rebuilt them to stay focused, energized, and aligned as a business owner. The conversation dives deep into productivity without burnout, redefining success beyond hustle, and why curiosity beats self-judgment when navigating career transitions.

Together, they unpack Robert’s “Win Your Hour” framework, the must–should–could–won’t prioritization method, and how ADHD awareness, mindset, and self-designed systems can become powerful advantages rather than obstacles. This episode is a must-listen for coaches, professionals, and entrepreneurs who want to build sustainable success while staying human.

Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertnmarshall
Website: https://marshallcoach.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marshallcoaching/

Transcript

Robert Marshall 0:00

For me, I had created a bunch of guardrails for myself while I was in the corporate world, right? Like I when I was there in the big offices, I I walked around to speed, talked to people. I'm a I'm a people person. And so I would do my job best by having lots of conversations, working with people, helping them solve problems, that kind of thing. Becoming a solo entrepreneur was a complete change for me. You know, it's like self-driven, like crazy, right? What am I going to do today? How does it drive my business forward? How am I working best? So I started to translate some of the things I knew, especially to do with productivity from my working world into my new solo entrepreneur world.

Davis Nguyen 0:37

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 1:08

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today's guest is Robert Marshall, a program management executive with a track record of leading large-scale digital marketing and product initiatives for global brands like Verizon, Fox, and Google. He's overseen international programs generating tens of millions in revenue while managing complex budgets and cross-functional teams. Known for a hands-on leadership style, he specializes in building high-performing teams, partnering with C suit stakeholders and delivering digital solutions across e-commerce, mobile, media, and marketing that balance client success with sustainable execution. Hey, welcome to the show, Robert. Thank you. Hey, thank you, Federal.

Robert Marshall 2:00

Great to be here.

Pedro 2:01

Excited that you're here. Okay. You know, before we get into what you do now, I'm curious how this all actually started, right? What was going on in your life when coaching became more than just an idea?

Robert Marshall 2:13

Yeah, a great question. So I think about two and a half years ago, I had had a successful career. So I'd worked on, as you mentioned, in program management, project program management digitally. So I've been doing that all my life. I think for like 30 years I've been working across that organize that that industry. I worked in the UK, I've worked in the Netherlands, I worked in Amsterdam for a while, then I moved to the US. I've been both in New York and in San Francisco. And I just got to the point where I think for me there's an 80-20 rule. Like I care about people, I love people, and I love working with people, I love developing people. And I found that throughout my career, that's how I always sort of focused, like 80% on the people, 20% on the stuff, right? Whatever the stuff was. But as I got more and more senior, especially as I, you know, moving to the US and getting more senior, I just sort of felt a disconnection between the importance of people and the importance of making money in the almighty dollar. Right. It just became like it came to a point in my career where you had to choose one or the other. And I didn't believe that that was a choice that I had to make. So uh I decided that um I would move into coaching and then spend my time trying to get the best out of that 80% that I enjoy uh and just spend my time working with folks. A big step, uh, you know, starting my own company, but it's brought me nothing but joy since I began. So I'm very excited about that move.

Pedro 3:38

Okay. And at what point did it stop feeling like, you know, like a side thing or a calling? And it started feeling like an actual business you were responsible for?

Robert Marshall 3:48

You know, that is interesting. I finished corporate and I built a big nest egg. My first six months was studying. So I studied at the Jay Shetty School under the great uh Jay Shetty. I did my learning and education there. And during that, I had pro bono clients. So I had a bunch of clients that I knew that were kind of friends or members of clubs that I was associated with and coaching them. So that was great. It felt like growth, but I saw something really interesting at the beginning of my coaching journey. And I think someone, you know, there's so many ads out there about coaching, right? I said something and then Instagram heard it, and then suddenly Instagram was like, I think you should be a coach, right? And just just start it's feeding me stuff. So I went on something like an hour, and they were really encouraging and they just talked to me about growth and they said, Hey, on this whiteboard, you know, right, somewhere visible to you, I am a life coach. And so I did. I wrote, I am Robert Marshall, I am a life coach. And that stayed with me and stayed on the wall for two years. And really at that moment, it cracked for me. It's like, I'm here, I'm putting both feet into this thing, I'm gonna make it work. So I finished up with Jay Shetty and then just started bringing in regular clients and uh I've been building my practice since then.

Pedro 4:58

Okay. And once you were out there helping people, right? Who did you naturally end up attracting? You know, when did you realize, yeah, these are my people and the people I work with best, you know?

Robert Marshall 5:09

Yeah. Interesting, could quite interesting question. I knew it was professionals, so I knew that I wanted to work with folks that were focused on their careers. What I was surprised by, I think, most is the fact that there's like every stage of that journey, right? So I believed like, okay, I was gonna help a bunch of people finding jobs, right? Finding careers and talking about careers from that perspective, helping with everything from, you know, how does their resume look, how does their elevator pitch look, how are they presenting themselves digitally online, how does their resume look, and then even going into interview training. So I thought that was gonna be the full press of my work. What I found though is that, and I'm very happy about this, is it's a lot more holistic when you work with people, right? It's like their career, yes, it's a big slice of their life, yes, it's a big major part of their life. But I find it super interesting that there's so many other parts of our life that are interweaved and important. Um, and so all of the clients that I have now are going through different stages of career. So I have some who are stuck and they just feel like, hey, I haven't been promoted. So I've been working with someone for uh for for uh about six months, just during that promotion period. Like, how do I get promoted? Uh I've worked with other people who are just sort of feeling stuck in their career and not listened to. And it's like, well, how do I talk to my boss? Or the other way, it's like my boss doesn't really talk to me, right? My boss is a is my boss is a boss, but maybe not a great manager and isn't doing like the mentoring part of the job. So what I've found is like people have these needs that they're not getting elsewhere that they're finding I can provide for them to fill in what the corporate world isn't doing right now.

Pedro 6:42

Interesting. You know, this is something that really sparked my curiosity, I would say. It's like you wrote you're a life coach, right? But now and I get it, you know, but uh would you say is that part of being a career coach, being a life coach as well? Because sometimes I see that it's a hard sell to say right off the bat that I'm a life coach, but it's something that eventually down the road on a career coaching space, it pops out, right? Because there are some mental blocks. Is that something you feel like it's happening with you?

Robert Marshall 7:15

Or yeah, I mean, I feel like yeah, it res it resonates with me. I feel like, especially today with the challenge of the economy, people are very wary about where they spend money and why, you know, and people are looking for guarantees. And I don't offer guarantees, but I offer that if you put in the work and we work together, you'll get where you want to go, right? You'll achieve your goals. Like that is that for me, I'm like, that is it. What are they? Let me facilitate you getting your goals, and that's huge. And so I find people do come in and they go, okay, I think it's based on uh corporate, I think it's based on my job, I think it's based on my career. And I normally find that within two or three sessions, you get to find out the other drivers in their life. So for example, I had a I had a client who said, you know, I need to urgently find a job, I need to find a job, you know, I haven't worked in a while, I need to find a job. And so we talked about that. But the challenge kept coming in that her partner, who had a great big job at a big corporate, was tired, was wound down, didn't want to work there. And so she was feeling that pressure of getting a job. Now, one of the things about that situation, you know, uh I'll do myself a disservice is I'll say to them, like, okay, but like, do you want a job right now, any job? Um, or are you looking for a specific job? And based on their answers, you know, she came back and she said basically anything. And I was like, okay, then we'll slow this down because that's not going to give you joy, right? That's not going to be a problem solved. That's going to be a problem shared. So, you know, how does it work if both of you end up in jobs that maybe neither of you enjoy, right? That's not going to help you. So then it's kind of going back to like, okay, so let's talk about the relationship and let's talk about that balance in the relationship, right? And far be it for me to get involved in a relationship, but there are times when people are very open with you and they're like, you know, what, you know, my partner's anxious. I want to help with that. It's like, okay, so let's talk about that. It's like it's making me anxious. Like, great, okay, let's deal with that. Like, you know, what do you have, what are the ways that you deal with your anxiety? What are the things that you can do about that? And it's feel it's the whole job of coaches to be curious and to ask the questions and to do deep listening. And so when we find out that, you know, you'll come to me because I say career, but you'll stay with me because, hey, I help you with you know bigger goals in your life, it all comes together, right? I go through something called the wheel of life where we think about your career, your family, your relationships, your purpose, um, your health, uh, all of those things. And we talk about it, right? It's like, how's the status of your whole life? And as that's brought you here. And then you start to tell where are the areas that actually are interconnected and challenging. It's funny, we just got into New Year's, so a lot of people are thinking about health and welfare and all of that kind of stuff. I have an interesting take on New Year's. I don't believe in New Year's resolutions. I I gave up on them a long time ago. And and also I've like, no one's doing anything right now. The animals are out are are are the rabbits, the bunnies, everything is is sleeping. So it's a really strange time for us then as humans to stand up and go, this is the time for change, right? Well, actually, this is the time to rest. We are in the middle of winter, right? We've reached that longest, uh, we've reached that longest day, it's that shortest day, and now the days are getting longer. And so we're gonna get more optimistic, we're gonna get more movement, we're gonna do all of that, but is it right now? So I find things like dry January, like if it's a need versus a want, absolutely, do dry January. But if it's a want, I really gotta ask why. Why, why, why that you do regularly at this time? And why uh why why then only for January? Right? You know what I mean? I'm like, I like the important because the question that underlies that, you know, people are, oh well, I had a a a big Christmas or a it's like, okay, well, that's a time of celebration, right? A time of celebration with family and friends. And again, as long as we're in the want state rather than the need state, I'm like, well, are you being hard on yourself? You know what I mean? Are you saying I have to do this because you know, if you want to challenge yourself, fantastic, that's great. I just think it's a hard time to challenge ourselves the middle of winter, and I think it's a tough thing that we take on. It's like, oh, I'm gonna, you know, change stuff right now. You're like, well, maybe is that what you need best in your soul, in your mind, in your body right now.

Pedro 11:21

Yeah. I I think I agree with that, and I resonate with it because when we grow up, you know, we see other people achieving. Like, for example, oh, he became a business graduate or whatever, and then you have that big celebration moment, and you're thinking when you're a kid, so something changes in that moment, right? Something pops, but at the same time, every day is they is is a day to change. It's it's about the it's not about, oh, now I am, you know, a business graduate or whatever major I got, and now something magical happens. It's not really like that, right? It's not really a great marriage, doesn't happen because you bought flowers, it's because every day you showed up, you know, consistently. So I agree with that a hundred percent. So okay. I mean, that's interesting, but let's zoom out for a second. Let's say if someone ends up working with you today, okay, how do they usually find their way to you in the first place?

Robert Marshall 12:17

Interesting. I I so I've done a couple of podcasts like this, especially related to ADHD. So uh I have ADHD and I take on uh ADHD clients. It's it's a it's an interesting point for me, but it's a a really deep that I have for the ADHD community. I've seen how difficult it is being successful in corporate with ADHD, and uh I think I can help others succeed. So I've had a few people you know hear me on a podcast and like, okay, come and find me. I am very proud of the fact that I built quite a network of folks over the past um, you know, uh you know, 20 years working with lots of different groups in lots of different countries. Lots of people still uh it's still still rep me and still enjoy working with me. And they remember that when we work together, my goal was you know a humanistic approach. And so those folks started to come in too and recommend others. And so it's built quite organically, I think. You know, people recommending other folks, and I just want to, you know, take opportunities like this to meet to reach as people as possible and just say, you know, whatever your circumstance, whatever your challenge is, if you're at a moment of low, I'm here then I can support you.

Pedro 13:22

Okay, cool. Now let's talk about mechanics behind the scenes for a moment, right? So let's say someone heard you on a podcast, they reached out, anyhow. When someone decides to work with you, right, what does that actually look like from their perspective?

Robert Marshall 13:37

From the jump. So most folks, you know, my Instagram is Marshall Coaching, uh, my site is marshallcoach.me. Most folks will come via those front doors, right? Via both things, you can choose a time with me. I have a calendar, it's open, and you can grab some time. And I do what I call a free alignment call, right? So it's just a low entry of just like, let's have a conversation. Um, really important part to me is there's no selling, right? This isn't about selling. Because I find that people are often waiting for the other shoe to drop and they're often waiting to say, what are you gonna, what are you gonna sort of offer me, or what do you want? Whereas I find that the first connection point is just really talking and getting to know someone, right? If that doesn't work, if we don't connect, the relationship is going to isn't going to work. So I think that first hour is just connecting and finding out sort of how you tick and you finding out how I tick. Uh, you know, when it's successful, it's wonderful. You know, folks are at the end and uh are always, you know, I like to end with, you know, is there anything you you you want to answer any further, anything you need to know? And I I love the that most folks at that point say, let's work together, right? Let's get let's get going. For me, my my philosophy, I like to meet folks uh once every two weeks. I like some time to elapse between coaching to sit for you to like do the do the work. Also see where you thought you would do the work and where you haven't, right? Because it's not for me, it's about it's not about it's not about okay, here's a bunch of things that you have to do, and then oh no, I didn't do them, I failed. It's like, well, what did you learn? Like, what did you learn from that as well? There is no failure if you're ever learning, right? So, you know, it's like, oh, I'm gonna, you know, some folks and like I'm gonna do my resume, right? Okay, great. You come back in two weeks, it's like, well, I haven't really done my resume. It's like, okay, all right, it was the most important that you needed to do. What why didn't you do it? And we get to then dive into is it procrastination? Is there a challenge somewhere there and you thinking about it? Are you ready to get into this next step? Are you ready to make fully into job posting? And I think especially when I start with someone with career coaching, but there are so many things to get ready for your own personal front door. So if we're going the career coaching route, I sell a program of six sessions, which we do once every two weeks. And at each one of those sessions will go through your goals. I also support you offline as well. So, you know, I get texts and I get emails from my clients where they tell me, like, well, here's a challenge here, or I encountered this thing, or this thing happened at work. What do I do? Um, I've even had folks who've called me um and said, Hey, can we chat? And they've said, Look, I, you know, I had a bad review and I don't, you know, what to do about it. You know, maybe I didn't even get as expected. And that's a really shock to me, right? What do I do about that? Uh, I remember I had a client who was sort of very, very right. I'm about to go into a a conversation with about what went on there. And and I just great because we managed to reflectively have a conversation and just say, hey, okay, hold on, but like you can be as strong in this conversation as a listener as a then as what do you mean? It's like, well, they're presenting you with information and they what they're looking for you for is confirmation. What they're looking back for you is like, okay, are you going to take the feedback that they've given you and run with it? Or are you going to take the feedback that they've given you, be angry, and even run away? And so just slowing that person down to like, you know, that this hour is not is not career. This hour is a conversation. This hour is gathering information for you. This hour is finding out exactly because if you find out you're sort of only 5% below and it's a specific issue that you've been talked about before, how do you focus on that one issue as you move forward? Right. Um, let's take, I don't know, it's punctuality. It wouldn't have but let's say, let's say, oh, I'm always late and I got dinged in my my review, then talk about that, right? It's like, okay, is first of all, is that true? Like, well, you know, if it's no, okay, what is it? If it's yes, it's like, okay, so why? Right? And I think finding and tapping into a person's awareness is probably the first job of a coach, right? How aware are you of this problem? How are you aware that it was coming? How aware are you that it was a big deal? Okay, if you do know, then is your job in that meeting to be blusteress, or is that meeting to sort of go, okay, I'm gonna take this on, I'm gonna understand, and I'm gonna come back and show you I can rise to the occasion even better.

Pedro 17:44

I like that because the punctuality example is perfect because that's a symptom, right? Yeah, that's not usually the root cause. And we're talking about coaching, we're talking about root cause, what's happening behind the scenes that you're late, right? You're showing up late, for example. Yeah, I mean, your work seems pretty involved, right? We're talking about alignment calls, we're talking about uh buy I think it was bi-weekly, right?

Robert Marshall 18:08

But yeah, fortnightly, as we say in the UK.

Pedro 18:10

Fortnightly, okay, fortnightly. So considering that, how do you think about managing your time and energy so the business don't start owning you?

Robert Marshall 18:18

Yeah, amazingly, I find that for me, I had created a bunch of guardrails for myself while I was in the corporate world, right? Like I when I was there in the big offices, I I walked around to speed, talk to people. I'm a I'm a people person. And so I would do my job best by having lots of conversations, working with people, helping them solve problems, that kind of thing. Becoming a solo entrepreneur was a complete change for me. You know, it's like self-driven, like crazy, right? What am I gonna do today? How does it drive my business forward? How how am I how am I working best? So I started to translate some of the things I knew, especially to do with productivity from my working world into my new solo entrepreneur world. So as a as a program manager, I think about Moscow, which is a uh a pro approach for prioritization. It's must, should, could, and won't. So you look at the tasks that you have to do, right? And being a grown-up is just one big task list, right? It's just an ongoing task list and then we die. It it can be a tough one to It can be a tough one. And then when you're a solo entrepreneur, well, it's kind of when you're in the structure of corporate and you have, you know, what you need to do today because these people are relying on you and those people are relying on you, and et cetera, et cetera. And like these are the other deadlines. When you're creating your own deadlines and your own deliverables and your own timeline, it almost becomes like everything is important. You ever get that, you know, that get that feeling everything's important, and then sometimes you even get to that paralysis. Well, I've been there. Uh and so I started leveraging these tools that I know. So I'm making like smart goals, so specific, make believable, realistic, and time bound goals for myself, right? So I'm not not doing the big the huge ones, like, hey, you know, for me, my my two dreams here is I want to do a I'd I'd love to TED talk and I I'd love to appear on Mel Robins. Those are my those goals, that's on my vision. Board that I created uh this year. But when I when I into it, like I think of the goals that I have to do for my business. Like I I need to have more people. How do I reach more people? Is that posting? Is it podcasting? Is it connecting via email? Is it shaking the trees of my own social media and my own network? Right. All of these things could be done. And so what I do is I get to my get together every day at the beginning and I have a little kickoff with myself. I link it to when my kids go to school. So I walk my kids to school and they come back. I'll admit there have been days right when I was like studying and working and stuff. I'd be like, okay, but if I go back to bed after that, you know, it's like I'll get another hour's sleep. It always gets to be two or three, right? So when I was like, no, I'm going instead to the kitchen and I'm gonna look at what I what I do in this time, right? And actually look at well, what's a must? What has to get done today? What's a should, you know, it should should done, and it would be good if it was done, but it's not not the top of the pile. Could, so what could I do, right? And these are nice to have, right? So for instance, I had paint my office in the basement as as something that was a went from to a should to a could, right? It was the most urgent thing to a nice to have. Um and then and then that was a great example as well. And then and then won't is when you say, look, I'm just I'm not and for me, I I think it's powerful to have a won't list. So of all the things that I've got to do, there's the things I I'm not gonna do them. You know what I mean? It's like and they they exclude things, community, because you know they they community is great, and I love to help people, and I I of course love to be of service, so I wouldn't be a coach, right? But it's that it's that like okay, but but is is one peer for me higher than this priority over here for somebody else? And you really need to think that way, I think, at times, right? When you really need to know that you're working on the highest priority of options to you, um, or even know, hey, I'm kind of stuck, uh, I'm in a rut, you know, I'm and okay, let me pick something else off the list, right? I'm gonna pick off one of the easy to do things so I can gain some momentum, right? And so that's what I do with my clients is we start to talk about your time, your energy, you know, your mental capacity, and of course your money, right? It's like we we can and prioritize all of those things, right? It's like what is important and what drains those things. So what am I spending my money on? Is that giving me return on life investment? What am I spending my time on? Is it is it helping myself? Is it helping others? Is it also nourishing me? I want to do things that are good, nourishing me, right? It's not just relaxing and watching Netflix, right? That isn't you the only rest I can get. I can go for a walk. I've got two puppies now, I can take them for a walk. Like there's good rest I can do. So yeah, it's it's it's that like shaping must could should do. I've then crafted a process called when you're hour. Um so I've been working with this and building it, I've been sharing it with my community. So when you're hour is this idea that really mindset is the most important part of any of this, right? There are many scientific studies that have shown that you can see someone in the height of excitement, you can see someone in the height of stress, and then and then physiology, right? It's exactly the same um arcs are going off. The nervous system is doing the same thing, the body is doing the same thing, it's reacting in the same way. So, what is it that says, I'm really excited, or I'm really scared, right? And it's all down to mindset and thinking about that mindset. So we do a lot of work of tapping into that, and so thinking about personal productivity, it's this idea that you know, how many hours do we have that we want to win every day? I start with I because I say this, and again, I took myself as my first, you know, uh a guinea pig through this, right? Because you start with a mindset question, like I have 24 hours. How many hours do you have to be successful? I have 24 hours, right? But that's not true. Already that's where judgment comes in, right? I like to say, you know, no, even Beyonce herself doesn't have 24 hours a day to do everything, right? We have to rest, we've got to eat. A lot of the work of being innovative and doing and and doing new stuff comes from being fresh and refreshed, right? So rest is important, so sleep is important. So immediately it's like, okay, it's not gonna be 24 hours, right? You have maybe 18. Then we look at your then we look at your situation, you know, what is your family's situation? I have two kids, you mentioned that you have two, two. So that means that your time is free, you know, especially if they are around. That time is not work time. And it can't be, right? You can't take um, of course we try, and then we end up to be people on phones in front of our kids, right? Or we end up with uh, you know, dropping work connections or being late for something because we wanted to give the kids an extra couple minutes, not park them in front of the TV. So I really start to say, okay, so it's not, it's not, it's not 16 hours, right? You have, you know, maybe four or five. Okay. So we think about that four or five hours. Okay, so let's think about that. We've got a prioritized task list, right? Because that's great. And then I have the four hours that I want to win. So for me, it's 9, 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and and and 9 p.m., right? And each one of those hours, I then set to myself to the mindset of like, how do I do my most important tasks during those times so that I can look back at the end of the week and say, hey, I won 12 out of the possible 20 hours I could have won this week, and I did these big things, and that's great, right? I also did some of these medium things, and you know what? I did a bunch of these small things, and and that helps remember, right, that your time is being effectively used. Because I think when it comes to burnout, it's really it's really interesting, right? You know, it's like when you when you when you're when you fully have that passion at 100% and the purpose at 100%, right? Burnout, it takes a lot longer to get to burnout, right? Why is that like everything you're doing is like sparking you, sparking your creativity, sparking you doing this task. It's a lot harder when there are many primary tasks to do and there's lots of different alternatives for your time. So you've got to focus and merge those two things together. So that's where win your hour came from. This idea that like you had a list, it was properly prioritized, you had the specific times you were trying to win. Uh, and I found that an hour is the longest amount of time that I think you you want to, right? Because focusing on one task, drilling down to one task. There's nothing stopping you going on from that. So hey, maybe I'm loving this task and I'm gonna do two, three hours, but I'm starting and I'm committing to the one hour is how I begin.

Pedro 26:24

Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. And especially when you you said about, you know, uh having so many priorities, right? So many things we're we're we're we're social media. So you're scrolling and the post says, Hey, AI is gonna take over. The next post is like AI is dead, you know, that type of stuff. And you're like, okay, which one?

Robert Marshall 26:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the thing with social media.

Pedro 26:47

Exactly. Yeah. And also the the must. Sorry, can you read that the must should and won't. I've met that with different intakes, like Eisenhower matrix. I think this is more related to business, but I think it's possibly somewhat like the same priority matrix that we're trying to dive in, you know? I get that.

Robert Marshall 27:08

Yeah.

Pedro 27:09

Yeah. And and the trick is, and I call it a trick, because the mindset sometimes, you know, placebo effect. That's we have, you know, documents that prove that that that exists. So but we need to trick ourselves, right? Yeah, it's like if I if I tell myself something is gonna be exciting and I prematurely say that to myself, sometimes it doesn't, you know, that exciting because I created that framework of excitement before I was there. So yeah, it's a trick, right? It's kind of a yeah, yeah, yeah.

Robert Marshall 27:39

It's a fun, it's a fun, it's it's it's fun. Okay, I think about you know, Ted Lasso was an amazing show. One one of the primary things that that that came to this idea of uh curiosity versus judgment, right? How to meet a situation with curiosity versus how to beat it with judgment, which I think is an um which is amazing. I think I've I've picked up presentations with with Ted Lasso on there, right? Because if we think about our own mindset, right, we think about all very judgmental, whether it's we're judging ourselves, we're judging a circumstance, we're judging other people. We can be judgmental, and especially when we're looking at ourselves, we can be very judgmental, right? Um it's something that is is is even in those with ADHD and you know with higher functioning, because that is a challenge that you're always seeing the life that you could have, and then somehow just not getting there, like 5%, 10% not getting there. Like, oh man, I you know, I see the perfect day where I'm I'm never late, do all of the things I need to do, I get them done, I communicate in the right way, I have the same energy level all through the day. Like I can see that vision, and that actually just becomes a weight on my back, right? It's judgment. Like, why aren't I doing that? So I think one of the great jobs of coaching is to open you up and then make sure that you're also asking why, right? So you're curious, right? So you take procrastination. It's not about laziness, right? If you're on your own, if you're you're ever out there and you're on your own and you're procrastinating, you're sort of stuck watching Netflix and you're mad at yourself during that time, right? Procrastination is like that is that that point of anger that you get to. Like, I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have been on the couch, or I shouldn't have been doing that thing, I should have been doing this other thing, or I shouldn't have kept myself busy doing something small when I was doing something big, right? So what the work is to find out, well, why is the thing that you're going to do needing pause? Why is it something, as you said, why is it not reaching the excitement framework? Why is it not grabbing me? And some work is just work, you know what I mean? I've got to do invoicing at the end of the month. That's just work, but it's super important. Right. It's really helping you see and frame, okay, but this has to be done. Okay, why am I having a challenge with it, right? I'm not doing it yet. Why aren't I doing it yet? And you ask those questions and you do that thinking with someone, and it it's really interesting what opens up. Is it uh, you know, a feel of failure? For some, it's even a fear of success. If you can imagine that, you're just like, you know, oh, well, if I if I call the people on my email list, like what if a lot of them respond and I don't have the time and I don't have the ability to respond to them correctly, et cetera, et cetera. Our brain do that because it's a problem-solving machine, right? So you you feed it the question, what could go wrong, it will tell you. You feed it the question what will go right, it will tell you. And unfortunately, it's judgment that sparks a lot of that thinking. Whereas if we can just grab hold and turn it into curiosity, that's when we've got to like really engage in the answers, right? Really engage in the in in the Then you know you could be off to the races.

Pedro 30:33

True, true. You know, talk about the structure of your business now, looking forward a bit, right, Robert. What's the direction you're aiming this business towards? I mean, are you thinking more about growth, leverage, building a team, possibly refining what already works? I mean, what feels most exciting right now?

Robert Marshall 30:51

Yeah, so it being it being I last year, it's like was the word of a year. So last year was alignment, right? I really needed to align um my energy with the goals and with the growth of the business. Like I really wanted to get good at this, at working with the folks that I worked with, good at meeting them, good at aligning with them, um, and almost taking you know my ego out of the process, right? Because with each person you meet, you you come as a front door, right? So it's like, okay, I can't take this last meeting, what happened here, into the next meeting. You are the focus, you are the client in this moment here. So that was it. Last year was about alignment and just making sure everything I was doing was aligned to growing this big business, this business that I could. This year, I think there's there's two things. I think one is personality and the other is growth. So I really want to be more out there. A TED talk would be great. I'd I'd love to share my personal productivity tips, especially with those with ADHD. I'd love to do that however and wherever I can. I'd love to talk to folks about raising ADHD children and some of the challenges there, especially in people of color, right? Because I think far too often, you know, it can be lumped in with the idea of mental illness, right? And so pushed to the side, right? There's definitely something there about the immigrant mindset and then with mental health. It's right, you know what I mean? It's like the immigrant mindset is I come here and I'm gonna work really hard and I'm gonna raise my family, right? And I'm gonna raise it and I'm gonna run miles so that you only have to run 100, and then their kids will only have to run 10. Right. And it's also it's always interesting, like a visible challenge, a visible disability, a visible hurt will get taken into consideration, right? Okay, you're you're hard working, but this. I think when you get to ideas like uh ADHD and the way that that affects people's productivity, the way that they work, the way that they communicate, the way that they live, a lot of time and care has to be taken to look at kids and to look at ourselves and sort of again, not with judgment, but go, okay, is something going on here? Yes, okay, then what accommodations do I do for myself? Right. And again, with the immigrant child mindset, accommodations is not something that we think about. Like, how will you help? How will someone help me in this situation? How will some what will someone give me in this situation to help me? We don't think about that. We think about being self-sustaining, self-burning, you know, just like keep on running. So I think the ability to reach folks and to say, you are running as hard as you can. Like I know that I ran as hard as I could all the way through my career. I came up with accommodations. That's what I realized, you know, years later. It's like to be late, I always lived closer to my work. And I didn't get I didn't look that we're too far away. I looked for very high, fast-paced jobs. I work in project management because I love working with teams of people and I'm able to have like a hundred different conversations a day and then go in fresh to each one of those conversations. Later on, finding out, okay, that's that's ADHD, right? That that that hyperactivity, I was running as fast as I could, because my mind would then absorb and then still work and still bounce, bounce in that way. So I think that helping others and enabling others to see in themselves and their families, you know, how ADHD is an integral part of who they are, but also something that they can work with and then even leverage, right, to be proud of, right? And there are other parts of it, like time blindness, like task blindness. We can help ourselves in those situations, right? If we want to, right? And it's not again about so the first point is awareness. I realize here's a challenge, I realize I gotta face this challenge, right? Then the second is what can I do about that, right? Well, you know, there are many parts, like our brain's a race car. I like to say that to many of my clients, and even the most famous drivers, Lewis Hamilton in the world, uh, is nothing without the pit crew. A great pit crew, right? And in fact, the analogy is like, okay, if well, if he was just riding, riding, riding, riding, riding, riding, riding, riding, the tires would get low, he would get tired, like he would become a messy driver, all of those things, right? He wouldn't be looking after the race. So it's those moments to pause that I think are really useful. Uh so I think about therapy. And again, many people almost don't believe in therapy, right? But for others, I mean, especially for myself, I can say it's such a good space to open up and and and look at the past, guided with someone who really cares about you, right? And and cares about your health. And then I think about mentors and then also about coaches. So with coaches, I see you as complete and whole and resourceful. You can, you can do this, right? And I know that because at the very least, you have come here with the awareness that you need a coach to help you get to that next level. So already I'm like, when you come in the door, I'm like, you're you're doing something for yourself that is amazing, right? Even if you're saying, like, oh, I'm looking for support or help, you're like, that is amazing, right? That is not a that's you're not looking, you're not looking for a handout, you're not looking for charity, you're looking for the best ways to run your race, run your time. And who do you put in your pit crew, how you put them in the pit crew, and how you see yourself going through that, I think is a great thing for people to think about and a great way for coaches to come in and and help people, especially Okay.

Pedro 36:03

You know, and even when things are going well, there's always something under construction, right? I mean, what's the main thing you're actively working or trying to improve in the business right now?

Robert Marshall 36:13

So for me it's it's it's connection. You know, I I am on Instagram, as they say I'm not on TikTok, I'm not I'm not that the kids. So right now in in growth, it's all of you know, how do I connect and show people, especially reach out to those groups of people of color, uh you know, ADH folks, how do I reach out and show them that I'm a place of safety? So this year it's about putting myself out there more publicly, making more posts, getting my own thoughts and opinions out there. That's that's the big thing to me this year. I would love to uh also work in in group coaching and in corporate coaching, so to work with trainers that are doing training in corporate spaces, but to work with teams. It's kind of a cheat for me because that's also what I did for a long time and what I love doing is working with teams and helping them optimize. So I think growing my business in that way this year, as well as the the individual clients, where I want to be, I think by the end of the year doing doing a lot of that, and basically it's about the maximum number of folks, right? It's like I really want to be of service and help the maximum number of people this year that I can.

Pedro 37:13

Okay. Robert, before we close this out, if someone resonated with what you shared and wants to follow your work, where they should where should they go?

Robert Marshall 37:21

Uh yeah, as I say, on Instagram, I'm uh Marshall Coaching. Uh you'll find me there. And online it's marshalcoach.me. You can do either one of those things and you should come to my front door. I've heard Google searches I do pretty good. So uh you can find me that way too. But yeah, uh any of those routes, please look me up and I happily connect with anyone. And again, it's not about sales, it's about conversations.

Pedro 37:44

You know, there were a few moments from this conversation that really stood out to me, you know, like the 80-20% rule, you know, that you felt like, hey, I'm 80% people, this should make more sense, and just went straight up with coaching. So I really like that. I also like the fact how you frame the alignment call, right? So it like it it's really just an introduction, you know, to see if we can connect. So I really like that, and also the journey, right? And and the new years that you don't believe that something magical happens uh at midnight, right? And I I gotta say I kinda agree with that. So and also I really like the fact that you mentioned the ADHD, you know, because I see a lot of myself in you, like the coping mechanisms, the structure we build around us. And sometimes I've I've been doing this for the past 39 years and been talking with people just like you on a podcast. I've been becoming more and more aware that I'm actually might have ADHD. You know, like, oh, I'm gonna sit in the first row of the class because I don't want to do homework. No, it's because I cannot concentrate or focus properly. So I do that, you know. Uh like you said, I'm gonna I need to, you know, the appointment is 7 a.m. I need to be, you know, five is seven, I need to be like there 6 30 because it might happen something wrong, and the train might get l, you know, I might get what I mean. You're trying to compensate and create mechanisms to prevent stuff from happening, you know, and yeah, completely resonate with what you said. Okay, I'm seeing while you were talking, I'm seeing myself in a mirror to be completely candid. I really appreciate you taking the time and being open with this. It was great having you on, Robert.

Davis Nguyen 39:31

All right, great, and thank you. That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This podcast was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, or even $100,000 weeks, all without burning out and making sure that you're making the impact and having the life that you want. To learn more about our community and how we can help you, visit joinpurplecircle.com.