Creating Results-Driven Coaching for Young Professionals with Chris Greene

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, host Pedro sits down with Chris Greene, co-founder of YoPro, a career development program designed to help college students and recent graduates turn who they are into confidence, clarity, and career momentum.

After being laid off from a successful career in advertising—working with global brands like Bank of America, American Express, and Marriott—Chris made the leap into entrepreneurship to address a critical gap between college and the workforce. He shares how real-world hiring experience, deep research, and practical coaching became the foundation of YoPro’s high-touch, results-driven model.

Chris breaks down how YoPro scales without sacrificing quality, why one-on-one coaching beats cookie-cutter solutions, and how his team empowers former HR professionals—many of them women who left the workforce during COVID—to re-enter work with flexibility and purpose. The conversation also dives into pricing with confidence, building capacity responsibly, teaching accountability to young professionals, and why success truly comes from getting great at being you.

Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-greene-founder-at-maverick-and-co-7b5791249/

Website:https://www.maverickandco.io/

Transcript

Chris Greene: 0:00

Great question. Our goal is never to have like a YoPro in every corner. I am committed that YoPro is only as good as the advice that we give. So once that starts to get watered down, then we have an issue and we're not going to be serving our clients appropriately. So the way that we think about scaling is that we obviously have myself and Trish, we're the primary coaches, and Trish does most of the line share of the teaching. Then we also have people that we've worked with before that work in human resources that we've trained on YoPro and how to administer the advice that they're able to take on clients. And the interesting thing is when COVID happened, we saw an amazing amount of women leave the workforce and never re-enter. So what we do is that we work with primarily women who have left the workforce that want flexible hours. They still want to participate, still want to work in their human resources capacity. So we give them the opportunity to take on as many or as little clients as they want. And then we're able to still make sure that the advice is sound and salient. But that being said, we do have sometimes we're a capacity where we can't take on any clients and we've got to put them off for a couple months.

Davis Nguyen : 0:58

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: 1:29

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today's guest is Chris Green, a career development mentor who helps college students and recent graduates translate who they are into confidence, clarity, and career momentum. After starting out in the restaurant industry, he built a career in advertising, working with global brands like Bank of America, American Express, and Marriott while developing high-performing diverse teams. That experience led him to create YoPro, a program designed to help young professionals articulate their strengths, navigate interviews, and stand out in competitive markets. His work is grounded in practical communication skills, mentorship, and one core belief. Success comes from getting great at being you. Welcome to the show, Chris. Thanks, Pedro. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Back to the origin story. So 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. So when was that for you?

Chris Greene: 2:38

So, like you said in the wonderful intro, I spent most of my career in marketing, working with amazing clients. And I transitioned out of that job, which means I got laid off. And I was thinking about what would be my next move and what I wanted to do. And I could always continue doing marketing, which was great, but I realized that there was a need, especially today, to help call in today's hostile job market to help college students and recent graduates find a way to navigate themselves into careers that they're going to love and thrive in. Um, and this is something that isn't taught in school. Career centers are falling down. So this is a gap that existed in the market. And I thought I always loved mentoring. I always liked leading teams. I like understanding what drove people and then putting them into positions that made sense for them. And I thought, let's give this a try. It seems like something that I would really enjoy doing.

Pedro: 3:28

I love the fact that you had skin in the game, right? You were laid off. So that resonates uh with a lot of people, like so powerful. So because I I bet you had some clients that were laid off as well, right? And it's life happened. So what I'm trying to understand is when did it shift from I'm helping people to I'm building a real business around this? Because we know in the early stages, we're like trial and error of is this really gonna take off? So when when was that shift for you?

Chris Greene: 3:57

So I think when I did I'm a big research guy, and that's basically it based in my marketing background. So when I identified the gap between college and first job and seeing the declines in what they call college job for recent graduates, I thought there is a need there that needs to be addressed. So I went out and I talked to 35 parents and their children. Um, and I talked to them. I said, what's what's causing you consternation about the job search process? Where do you feel like you're from falling down? Where did school not prepare you? Then I talked to 25 recruiters across the country and found out where young uh college students and recent graduates were fallen down, coming unprepared. And then those two combined helped me create like the vision for YoPro and thinking what we could provide to people. So it became a thing, honestly, to answer it another way. When you get laid off, you give a decision tree of like I can go back to doing what I was doing or I could try something different. And I thought, you know what? I'm kind of done with corporate America for a little while. I'd like to try my own path and be responsible for my own destiny. So that to your point about having skin in the game, that's what drives me to help these college students and recent graduates. And also to help them think about you may think because your parents say you should become an accountant. That might be the path you're on because that's what they told you. But you might have a desire to do something different. And that's also what we talk about. Just to show that there are many different paths that you can take, especially so early in your career.

Pedro: 5:22

I love that because it that happened to me exactly that. I went to my dad, like, hey dad, what should I do? You know, it's kind of weird because today we have this type of resource, right? That you can just plug in and someone like you to help us, you know, at least get give us a second opinion or understand what's really happening behind everything that's going through someone who's a 17, 18, 19, 21, 22 had, you know, so completely get it. And after you got rolling, right? Because it sounds like you're pretty niched already. But who are the people that kept showing up? The ones you realized. This is my tribe.

Chris Greene: 5:58

In terms of the clients that we work with?

Pedro: 6:00

Because you know, I understand that you were laid on, and it sounds like you were like already very clear in your next steps. But sometimes we see other coaches, and this resonates with our audience. It's like they're trying to help everyone, you know? They're like to try, and sometimes they niche down, sometimes they don't. So I want to understand from your point of view, the ICP. So the great question.

Chris Greene: 6:22

So as I talked about, I've got a really great marketing background. But my co-founder and partner, Trish, she has 25 years recruiting. So she has been in the room where the conversation happens. She has looked at candidates' resumes and decided which ones move forward. So what we offer, as and we talked about this before, offer what different than other coaches is that we still work in corporate America. We still Trish consults. We have recently, we haven't, we know how the hiring process moves. We know what hiring managers are looking for. So when you have that student who's listening to their parent or their career center and giving them advice, it might be based in theory or conjecture. What we offer is actual practical, real world experience that's going to help you stand out. So when we work with our clients, and there are a lot of coaches, and everyone has their own niche, we come from a perspective of I often call it like we're the driver's ed coaches. Parents always outsource that task to someone else. We come in, we give the tough coaching, we help find what makes them unique, we help prepare them to stand on their own and ask questions and enter the world as an adult. Like I have to say, simply said, it's our real world experience that sets us apart from anyone else in this category. A lot of people offer advice. We offer advice that's actionable and proven to work.

Pedro: 7:39

Interesting. Okay. I mean, that's the coaching side. Now let's talk about the part nobody escapes. And I think this is your specialty, right? Marketing. So how do people usually find you?

Chris Greene: 7:50

So it's referral. It's you that's probably number one, a parent that's worked with us that sees their child um get a job or develop their confidence, a referral from there. We work, we partner with therapists, financial advisors, lawyers. Some career centers in colleges work with us, um, and they'll refer students to us to work with, which is great. We also write a lot of um what I call like thought leadership content. So we write a lot of content about the job market, specifically about how college students and recent graduates, a lot of the hurdles they're facing in terms of stereotypes against them, the rise of AI, and we give points of view on how to, because our whole thing is whenever there's an obstacle in front of you, there's always a way around it. So our advice is always saying if AI is an issue, here are the five things you should do differently to make sure you're able to uh perform better. So some of that thought leadership content gets us clients. Um, we also speak at a lot of marketing associations, a lot of schools, a lot of parent associations. So we get an awful lot of leads from there. And then also doing podcasts like yourself. These are very helpful for us. Because it's hard. Coaching seems so squishy, but when you hear someone talk about it, you're like, oh, I get it. I get what they offer.

Pedro: 9:02

Right. Sometimes people have this, I guess, like an abstract idea of what it entails. But when you sit in front of that person, they get it, right? It's not that hard, but they need someone sometimes to explain to them that it makes sense.

Chris Greene: 9:16

Okay, I think a lot of the parents I work with think it's like incense candles and we're gonna talk about feelings too. But a lot of it is really like it's tough conversations and really figure out where you're gonna fit in the world. And we're so driven to help that that's what motivates us every day.

Pedro: 9:31

Right. That's true. Okay. I mean, let's talk business for a second. So people find you, right? Through your marketing efforts, like a podcast, like LinkedIn, your website, referral, you name it. So they resonate with your work and eventually they want to know what working with you actually looks like, right, Chris? So everyone builds their coaching business a bit differently. So when someone actually becomes a client, what does that experience look like right now?

Chris Greene: 9:58

It becomes a demonstration of what it's gonna be like for them to be in the workforce. And what I mean by that is from day one, when the YoPro signs up with us, they're in charge of the scheduling. So they're in charge of scheduling the appointments with myself and Trish for the one-on-one coaching. We have 10 modules laid out. They've got to take responsibility for setting those meetings up. They have to be responsible for coming on time, coming prepared. And also if they miss deliverables, they need to inform us before. So it's a way of saying what we do in our coaching, this is based on our real world experience working in companies. When these Yo pros start working, they're gonna go into an office environment where someone's gonna expect them to have a degree of proactivity, communication, and responsibility. And those are the tenets that we take from the beginning. So they're responsible for the scheduling. And then all of the sessions are one-on-one. We don't believe in crowded classrooms, we don't believe in apps or cookie-cutter approaches. This is all customized to the young professional that we're working with. And in those sessions, well, I will work through things like defining their what makes them unique. So what's their elevator pitch? We'll work on their resume. Well, I think the thing that I love about it is that in those conversations, often we uncover four or five other bullets that they never thought about that are more compelling that replace the bullets that they have in their resume. And it's during that time, I can start to see like the chest go up. I see the head go up. They're starting to feel proud of what they've done. Because sometimes they come in feeling a little less than. And then it's all of that. And then we have what people love is Trish runs an interview boot camp where she prepares them to walk through their resume, articulate what makes them unique, how to deal with an interviewer who's difficult, or an interviewer that just wants to talk about themselves. Um, and so she prepares them for that. And then at the end, we have a mock interview with a certified coach. So this is someone the YoPro has never met. We met, we have them get a job description, they go and they interview, we record it, then we review it with them and say, this is where you did well, this is where you fell down, this is where you need a little bit more work, um, which is super helpful in them understanding how they're coming across on Zoom and how they're projecting their voice or how their their posture is or their eye contact. It's um that's it's all critical and all works together in getting that competitive edge to stand out, which we love.

Pedro: 12:18

Very interesting. So somewhat like a hybrid idea. You have some modules online, right? And also at the same time, you have some one-on-ones and then mock interviews. I really like that. Really interesting.

Chris Greene: 12:28

I might it's the modules are just like the courses that we have. It's all one-on-one. You'll never be watching a video of me talking. As exciting as that may be to some teasing, but it's always one-on-one. Because right now, there's too much technology, there's too much apps. We're preparing this generation to have human-to-human interactions, to know how to have a conversation, to know how to talk about themselves with confidence. To because a lot of them feel like it's bragging. This is all about selling yourself for a job.

Pedro: 12:56

Got it. Okay, awesome. That's interesting. Your work seems pretty hands-on, right? We're talking about one-in-ones, we're talking about almost somewhat like a custom experience. So, how do you think about capacity so you don't stretch yourself too thin?

Chris Greene: 13:10

So it's a great question. I think going into it, our goal is never to have like a yo pro in every corner. I am committed that yo pro is only as good as the advice that we give. So once that starts to get watered down, then we have an issue and we're not going to be serving our clients appropriately. So the way that we think about scaling is that we obviously have myself and Trish, we're the primary coaches, and Trish does most of the line share of the teaching. Then we also have people that we've worked with before that work in human resources, that we've trained on YoPro and how to administer the advice that they're able to take on clients. And the interesting thing is when COVID happened, we saw an amazing amount of women leave the workforce and never re-enter. So what we do is that we work with primarily women who have left the workforce that want flexible hours. They still want to participate, still want to work in their human resources capacity. So we give them the opportunity to take on as many or as little clients as they want. And then we're able to still make sure that the advice is sound and salient. But that being said, we do have sometimes we're a capacity where we can't take on any clients and we've got to put them off for a couple months. And um when that happens, we give them some reading materials. We might do some ad hoc one-on-ones with them just to kind of engage them. But it just right now where we've been in business for almost a little bit over a year, we want to make sure that when someone says, yo pro, they're like the advice they gave me landed my son or daughter a job. Not like, uh, it was generic. I could have learned it if I read something. Like that's how we think about it.

Pedro: 14:38

Okay. Delivering results. Okay. I like that. Well, Chris, one thing every coach wrestles with at some point is pricing, right? And how to package their work. The reason I asked this is because we see a lot of coaches that they're sometimes not charging enough, or maybe sometimes they're charging too much. On the say service-based industry, it really is about self-worth at some time. How do you think it about it today, you know, going through what you went through? And were there any lessons along the way that shaped how you landed where you are right now? Yeah, that's a great question.

Chris Greene: 15:11

I I feel like, and even in the beginning when I started, I think everyone's inclination is to undervalue. But I had this amazing friend that I friends with, um, her name is Heather, and she sat me down and she explained to me that, you know, look at your career, look at what you've accomplished, look at the value you could bring to an organization. Now you're going to be providing that the organization is yourself. You're going to be working for yourself. Don't underprice yourself, know your value. So when I look at YoPro and what we offer to our clients, I know that from myself and from Trish, they're getting advice that they couldn't get anywhere else. I say that with a great degree of confidence. So I price based on what my value is. It's $3,500 for 10 sessions. And then we stay with you until you get a job. Now that means text messages. That means, hey, I have an interview tomorrow. Can you give me 10 minutes? I want to prep for it. Absolutely. I have a cover letter. Can you review it for me right now? That's the kind of things that we do. And then we realize that that price may be expensive to some people. Then we offer sprints, which are five sessions with us, for $950. And I have to be honest with you, Pedro, I have had some clients say, you're too expensive. Can I get a discount? And my answer to them is I just don't think that we're the right fit. Because we do an awful lot of work with nonprofits. I work with a foster home in New York. We work with Girls Inc. here in Boston. There's a lot that we donate our time to make sure that everyone gets the opportunity to experience what YoPro is. If it from the jump you're being asked to undervalue or devalue what your service is, it's just not the right client. And that's fine. No hard feelings. Just let's all move on. I hope that answers.

Pedro: 16:47

Yeah, it does. And you got my head spinning. It's like I always try to think like in the counterintelligence way. It's like, okay, you want a discount? Okay, let's discount the outcome too, right? So you're not gonna get such a good job offering. Would that work for you? Right? And so it worked both ways. So this is the way, at least the way I think, right? So it's about outcome and about the value. So it makes perfect sense. And that's a solid look in how you approach pricing, you know, and the structure itself. Now, Chris, I'm curious about where you're taking all this, right? Looking ahead. Where do you see the business going? Are you thinking about scaling, hiring, or is there a next step you're excited about?

Chris Greene: 17:27

So uh always thinking about growth, as any founder listening to this will attest. It's on our head 24-7. So when I think I'm very much into pragmatic growth. I want as I said before, the advice is the most important thing. I see us growing in a couple ways. I see us growing working with high school students, and I see us helping them, and you know, high school students and maybe freshmen in college, if you will, and really helping them understand there is a big world out there, and there are not just four jobs you need to think about. There's a myriad of things you can be doing. So understanding what motivates them, what passions they have, and then saying, have you ever thought about this type of job? You haven't? Well, let's have you talk to someone in that industry who's in their early 20s, and they can tell you about, you know, what the what the industry is like. That's what so that's one area, like career exploration for younger professionals, figuring out like, well, yo, like young high school college students figuring out where they want to go their path. The next thing I think about a lot is have basically the yo pros that are in the job market now and how we're able to help them as they navigate more complex things in their career. So, you know, multiple offers, compete evaluating job opportunities, things like that. That could be something. Um, but this is all still based on like, you know, a high-touch consulting, like working with them. I don't see any technology, any apps replacing myself or the people that we have working for us administering advice anytime soon. And I think that we're gonna, I what I'd love to do is also to start working with companies. There's a couple that we work with now where we help them understand how to manage this generation and how to connect with them and meet them where they are. But then more importantly, helping like younger employees, let's say in that Gen Z cohort, if you will, explaining to them like when you have, you've heard of Gen Z face, where it's like the stoic look. Explaining to them, like you I understand that that may be a default, but you need to realize that's off putting to people in that when you smile, you're 9.7 times more likely to be remembered, and it releases dopamine in the person's head, so it makes them like you more. Like they're like we're all we're all we're just all human beings, and there are certain things that we do or don't do that create an instant impression. So it's working with them to say like between one second and seven seconds, someone has made a first impression of you. That's why it's important to walk in with confidence, smile, make eye contact. It's those things. It's really it's uh a lot of the interesting conversations we have with those companies that we work with.

Pedro: 19:57

Interesting, especially uh the thing you mentioned. You know, about navigating multiple offers. I think that is so interesting and so powerful too, you know, because sometimes people they bluff or sometimes they don't don't know what to do, right? And they're like, it sounds like a threat, and they don't know how to navigate those. I think that's a very interesting market to explore, but that's just my opinion. Anyhow.

Chris Greene: 20:22

It's good. Yeah, that and the other thing I'll add is um we're working with a few people that want to that are in careers and they want to transition to something else, something completely different. So it's helping coach them through like, where do you want to be? What do you want to do? Then here are the jobs, here's the way to transfer your skills so that you'll be th thought of positions, even if they're outside the industry you're in. But yeah, there's so much opportunity, that's the best part.

Pedro: 20:46

Yeah, and it's good to have like this someone to reach out sometimes, just knowing you could help them. Sometimes they're like just getting the job and not aware that you could, you know, help them with that. So yeah, totally. I see that. And of course, whenever we're aiming towards the next chapter, there's always something we're refining in the present, right? Like, what are you currently trying to improve or tighten up in your business right now?

Chris Greene: 21:11

The first thing, and we spend a lot of time with our clients, which is very rewarding, but I'd love to maybe tighten that up a little bit more. I think what the other part too is where I talk about not using the apps and technology and the coaching, there's a lot that we do behind the scenes using technology to help us move quicker. And that relates to finding insights that we bring forward to our clients, finding interesting researchers. There's a woman, Vanessa Van Edwards, who's an amazing expert in body language and signaling cues, that she's been such a great resource, her books. But I wouldn't have found her if I hadn't had access to like technology to aggregate and figure out stuff. Also, it helps me with as I think about marketing and getting more leads in for our business, like how we use technology in that capacity. So all the efficiencies that I find from an operational perspective or a marketing perspective to help me uh run the organization, I put that time back in the coaching. So I think it's just and also too, as founders, part of it is figuring out like what's the stuff that I really hold on tight to and what's the stuff I need to start releasing to others. So that's an interesting thing that's top of mind over the past couple of weeks. Working with my partner Trish, figuring that out.

Pedro: 22:20

Interesting. Okay. I want to switch gears for a second and do something a bit more fun. Not that this was not fun, Chris. Okay. If you're down for it, I got a quick game for you. Do it. Okay. We'll look at this through the lens of business investments, okay? Things like coaching, training, marketing, team, masterminds, you name it, okay? It's pretty simple. I'll give you four prompts and you tell me the first thing that comes to mind. If there's a story behind it, even better. Okay. First business investment you remember making.

Chris Greene: 22:50

I in technology, in my sorry, in like my computer, my setup, all that stuff. Yeah. Kind of boring, but yeah.

Pedro: 22:58

Yeah, no, I don't say I wouldn't call it boring. I wouldn't call it boring. I'm gonna have a give a side note here. I had a guest a while ago, Mike Lehman, uh shout out to him, and he was telling me the fact that he got stuck on equipment, right? He thought that in order to put uh you know his content out there, his word out there, he needed the perfect equipment, right? The perfect camera, the perfect microphone. And I can tell there are some people that resonate with that, you know. Whenever and and when we're at the end of the day, we need to put to put the content out there, right? This is the most important thing, is the message. But he told me he struggles so much with the equipment side. So I think that's interesting. Okay? I just remember that. That's funny. What's the most recent one you made? Investment? Business investment.

Chris Greene: 23:46

I would say in I don't want to say in myself. It was basically in ourselves. It's the continual like education to make sure that we're consistently staying really connected to what is happening in the lives of this generation. So that means like what they're learning in high school, what they're learning in college, what other pressures are outside. There's a lot of of of research that we do in terms of whether it's purchasing books, going to seminars, hearing people speak, that kind of thing. So I call that like an investment in us because that's going to make us better as we work with our yo pros.

Pedro: 24:19

I just picture you, Chris. You know, you're like the cool uncle, you know, navigating through the kids or like arriving with your skate, and yeah, hey, what's up? You know.

Chris Greene: 24:29

Yeah.

Pedro: 24:30

Yeah, I I don't think I can do it. Nice. Okay. Bast financial business investment you have made and why.

Chris Greene: 24:37

So I think you have to say investing in YoPro has been amazing. Because it's something that you stand on the sidelines and you think I can't, shouldn't do it. But then there's always a way to free up the capital in other areas of your life to invest in yourself and invest in a business. So I think that if I looked at the startup costs, anyone that's listening to this or that's a coach knows that there are startup costs, and sometimes they're a little hard to swallow. And you think, oh, it's safer to go maybe work for someone. Having taken that money and invested it in YoPro and seeing that this is something that is gonna obviously be successful and pay me back has been great. So I think that's I would say that. And then yeah, I would have to say that.

Pedro: 25:17

Nice. I like how it has the mentality behind it and not just uh eight investment, you know, it is like I took that risk and it paid off. I like that. Okay, overall, awesome. What's one investment you wish you could get your money back on?

Chris Greene: 25:33

Oh that's interesting. That I wish I could get my money back on. Obviously, like I'm sure there are little things that I'm annoyed with that I spent along the way, but I have to say, like having a business background really helped me evaluate things. There were a couple like influencers maybe that we worked with in the beginning that I wish that we hadn't gone so hard on, but actually their content is still performing for us on our social channels. So although they were a lot of money at the time, they're actually still paying off. So I think maybe said another way is that I maybe wish that I had spread out the spend a little bit differently. Like I felt like we needed all these things and we did, but maybe there's some things we could have held off on and then launched in year two versus doing in year one. You know, I'm not a big look in the rearview mirror guy. So I'm always like, you'd make the decision, you go for it. If it works, great, if not, learn from it and go forward. Okay.

Pedro: 26:23

Yeah, and looking at those, how has your approach to investing in the business changed over the years? If it has, right?

Chris Greene: 26:29

Yeah, it's has. And it's become a bit more like I knew that the what the startup costs were going to be because I'd mapped those all out. And I knew that in year two that spend would go down and that I'd want to do some continuity spend to help marketing and create some, you know, new leads. But then looking at technology, that also helped me offset some of the costs. So as long as it stays out of the red, I feel good. But this can always be more efficient. And this and there's so many things you can invest in. I think that's probably the thing. I was so hyper focused on I needed a website, we needed great social content, we needed a way to, we needed a referral strategy. Those were the and those are the tenants for the first year, impounded that. Didn't spend a lot of money on external advertising, didn't spend like on ads or some dig we're we needed to prove ourselves and get case studies because the thing that people respond to really well with us, we've had over 70 students go through the program. We have an 88% success rate. We have students working at TJX, Fidelity, EDP, Investco, like really good companies. And so I knew that we needed that to show like this is the proof of concept. And in year two and year three, maybe we spend more money on marketing externally like that. I'm a big believer in not spending money you don't have.

Pedro: 27:42

Interesting. Okay. You know, I want to tap into your experience for a second, because people listening can really benefit from this. You know, you've been in the game long enough to hear all kinds of stuff, you know, about business advice. And some are good, some are bad, you know. So what's one piece of business advice you hear all the time that you think it's overrated or maybe misunderstood?

Chris Greene: 28:02

I think the idea, and this is gonna be provocative, there are people that are like, you can only do one thing. Like you can only do one thing. There were people that were like, I would talk to and I would talk about we are different, I talk about YoPro, and then I would say, you know, I'm thinking about creating this other offering that is five sessions at a different price. And people, like well-intentioned intentioned people, were like, no, don't lose your focus. You got to stay on this. And I think that as you're starting out in a business, your first three years are all testing and learning. Because where I started with YoPro in the beginning isn't necessarily where I am now. But I take the inputs and the learning that I have and continue to evolve. I think that some people can get really stringent, and I think that's when you see failure because they're like, I'm gonna stick with this, and they're not reading the room that actually people are asking for something different and evolving what they're offering is. So I think like that idea of like stay focused is helpful, but you need to also listen and observe what's happening around you. And also the other thing too is trust my gut a lot of the time. And a lot of well-intentioned people, whenever I say, Oh, I have my own business, this is what I do, they're like, Hey, have you ever thought about this? Or a lot of times I have, and they're just bad ideas, but I just will listen and filter through and maybe take a couple things, but primarily I just stick with my gut. That's that's why it's been working for me.

Pedro: 29:22

Okay, interesting. I like that. And and on the other side, what's a piece of advice you wish more people actually took seriously?

Chris Greene: 29:31

That you can do it. There are so many there that you you are in a position right now where you're listening to this and you're in a job that you don't like, you're in a situation that you don't like. It is so scary to take the first step, but you can do it. And there are many people like before me that have done it, obviously. And I never thought that I never thought in my life that I would be running and leading a company that I built, and I'm doing it, and it's the most rewarding thing. And, you know, it's a lot like some people are cut out for it, others aren't. And that's not an indictment, that's just a statement of fact. It's stressful. I am hustling every day. It's like it's always on my brain. I'm always thinking about how that we can be better. But I love that. And I love that I'm doing it for myself and not for a company or working for like the man, if you will.

Pedro: 30:14

I love that. Really love that. And if someone listening wants to connect with you or follow your work, Chris, where can people find you and connect with you?

Chris Greene: 30:22

They can find me many one is on LinkedIn at Chris Green. If you put Chris Green, the YoPro or YoPro, you'll find me. You can email me at Chris at the pro.com. We have our website. I've got my Instagram, which is always full of up-to-date content and tips for young professionals and for employers, and that is at the yopro underscore LLC.

Pedro: 30:42

So yeah, you can find me everywhere. Nice, nice. You know, there were a few things you shared today that they really stay with me, okay? I gotta tell you, the the fact that you've been there, done that, right? The layoff that happened to you and how you turned that hardship into an opportunity, you know, that's so powerful that resonates with a lot of people, myself especially, because we sometimes we got into those situations, you know, and it's not easy to come on top of it. So congrats on that. Thank you. I would also emphasize and highlight the fact that how YoPro works like a base camp, right? You're teaching accountability through scheduling, you're teaching accountability through get on point, you know, be there, you know, introduce yourself. But the tool itself is an accountability machine. And I really like that. You're not trying to chase them because that's part of the teaching. So I really like that. Whenever we have people that are worried about the churn rate and about, oh my god, X, Y, and Z happened. I need to talk with that client. Actually, this is just part of the process. They need to understand and they need to dive in fully so in order to succeed, right? Really like that. I commend you on that. And the other thing is like, you know, investing in the business. Like you said, when we were talking about the best financial investment in the business investment, you were like, yeah, taking that risk, right? Turning myself into a business owner. So that is awesome. I really like that because you didn't pinpoint exactly one thing, but you pinpoint all of those at the same time. Everything you did was towards your own project and not someone's else, right? Like the man, like you said. So, Chris, I appreciate what you do. I appreciate you being here and sharing so openly today. It was great having you on. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. It's so nice having this conversation.

Davis Nguyen : 32:39

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 join purplecircle.com.