From Culture to Results: Brad Federman on Real Coaching That Drives Growth

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, host Pedro sits down with Brad Federman, founder of Performance Point and a seasoned culture architect, to unpack what leadership, coaching, and business growth really look like in a rapidly changing world.

Brad shares powerful insights on why “knowing everything” is overrated, how transparency and self-awareness build trust, and why great coaching isn’t about giving answers—but helping people think for themselves. From a formative lesson taught by his father, to hard-earned business setbacks that forced him to bet on himself, Brad walks through the moments that shaped his philosophy as a coach and entrepreneur.

The conversation dives deep into building coaching cultures, handling difficult leadership dynamics, scaling a coaching business without sacrificing integrity, and using technology and AI to enhance human connection—not replace it. Brad also explains how Performance Point creates measurable results through long-term coaching engagements, proprietary frameworks, and a strong emphasis on trust, accountability, and real transformation.

If you’re a coach, leader, or business owner navigating growth, culture, and change, this episode offers practical wisdom and a refreshing perspective on what sustainable success actually looks like.



Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradfederman/
Website: https://www.performancepointllc.com/

Transcript

Brad Federman 0:00

Overrated or misunderstood. I think the idea that we have to know everything, the best phrase I've ever heard in business when it's true, is I don't know, but I'll find out. The idea of being transparent and honest that think about it this way. In the 1940s, the most common jobs were secretary and farmer. In 2020, the most common jobs are things like CEO or even AIO experts, biophysicists, and things that you never even thought you'd hear of. And by the way, some of those are disappearing and new ones are being recreated. The world's changed dramatically. Here's just even take the farmer concept for a moment. The farmer back in the day knew the entire farming business.

Davis Nguyen 0:40

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 1:11

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Pedro and today's guest is Brad Federman, founder of Performance Point and a culture architect who believes culture is the heartbeat of every organization. His work focuses on helping leaders create environments where people don't just show up for a paycheck, but bring real commitment. With more than 25 years in the trenches, Brad has partnered with organizations like FedEx, Nordstrom, Mayo Clinic, Deloitte, and Hilton to strengthen leadership, increase engagement, reduce turnover, and drive measurable business results. He's a three times author, international speaker, and trusted advisor who helps organizations turn culture into a lasting competitive advantage. Welcome to the show, Brad. Thank you very much. Glad to be here. It's great to have you. And all right, let's rewind a bit. You know, every coach has that moment where they look at their life and say, hey, I guess this is what I'm doing now, right?

Brad Federman 2:15

So when was that for you? I've had a series of moments, but I'm gonna pick one. How's that? Uh and I and I liken part of my origin story to my father. You know, he grew up poor and he went into engineering because he wanted a way out of poverty for the family. And you saw him as a techie, but he was so thoughtful and talented in so many ways. And a story about when I was a teenager, probably about 13 years old, uh, really stands out to me. I wanted to start smoking, right? And so I went to my dad and I said, Dad, what do you think? And he did probably the hardest thing for a father to do, but the smartest thing for a father to do. He said, You don't want to know my opinion. And I said, What do you mean I don't want to know your opinion? I said, I'm asking you a question. What do you think? I'm I'm I'm thinking about maybe trying to smoke. You know, what do you think? And he said, You don't want my opinion. I said, Why would you say that? And he said, Because you already know it. I said, What do you mean? He said, Well, do I smoke? And he said, I said, no. And he said, Well, then you know my opinion. So you've got to be asking for a different reason. And here's my guess. You're asking because if I say yes, you've got permission. And if I say no, you've got permission to rebel. So I'm not going to give you permission, and I'm not going to give you permission to rebel. I'm going to say this is your decision. It rests on your shoulders. All of the consequences, repercussions, everything that comes with it. You should be thinking about how this will impact your health. You should be thinking about how this should impact will impact your social life. This will be, you should be thinking about how it will impact um financially, because it costs money. And he went through everything really quickly, but he went through everything and said, I don't even want to talk about it. I don't want an answer. I want you to rest with all that, process all that, and make a decision. And I chose not to smoke because I reflected on it, and the decision was put on me as opposed to somebody else making it for me. And what I realized now as an adult, which I didn't initially realize when I was younger, was he was coaching me. He was giving me the time to reflect, and he was using questions to get me to reflect. And that's really a coach's job is to help somebody learn, grow, and come to terms with things themselves, as opposed to giving them the answers or doing it for them. And so, in a lot of ways, my dad was a really good coach. And I I view him as a large portion of my origin store.

Pedro 4:38

Wow, that was insane. He created like I always think like this. I always think uh sometimes it's like he threw you a bone and he kind of backed on it, and you're like leaned in and he then used the pivot. So, you know, you want you don't want to know, you don't want to know my opinion, and then you went, and then he asks you back, and then you were like reflecting. And this is like exactly how coaching is done. I really love that. I mean, I'm gonna steal that. I have two points. I gotta steal that and use with my kids, okay? Okay. I'm taking notes. Okay. And later on, Brad, what happened? Like, let me understand that's your origin story, and that's a great origin story, but I want to understand when that happens in the business side, right? Like, when did it shift from I'm helping people to I'm building a real business around this?

Brad Federman 5:28

Uh, you want to know the business origin story? That's even more interesting because I I had done human performance-related work internally for years, and I had gone externally for a consulting firm because I had built up some really strong capability in terms of not just the business side, sales, marketing, operations, that kind of thing. But I had built up a lot around training, design, delivery, coaching, et cetera. And so they had recruited me out of the company I was working for, which was actually Humana Inc., I was their manager, management, and development. And I started working for a consulting firm. I worked for them, and the owner, the founder, wanted an exit strategy. And uh, and they moved me from mem from DC, Washington, D.C., to Memphis, Tennessee, um, to help formulate an exit strategy and help the company grow so that he could exit and make his money off the business. And as a part of that, I was offered uh uh verbally a deal that that I would get a percentage of the business. I'd never have to work again in my life unless I wanted to, my house would be paid off. I would be wealthy, I would be in good shape. So we found, we grew the firm, we found the exit strategy, and his agreements with, we did a merger roll-up, his agreements with the people putting the merger roll-up together got signed. My agreement, along with the other individual that was helping, our agreements kept getting changed by him and sent to the to to legal all the way till the train was leaving the station. And uh, he hadn't signed our agreements yet. And he walked away with millions and millions of dollars in his pocket, and myself and the other individual got nothing. And I still had to work. I had to figure out what I was gonna do. And and literally I coached myself. I I went through and said, How are we gonna handle this? You know, I need to make a living. I've got years ahead of me. Do I work for somebody else? Um, if I do, do we have to move? Because Memphis is gonna be hard for me to recreate what I was what I was making and doing. And I I came to terms with the fact that you know, I had helped other people grow their business, right? I had um I had helped somebody have uh develop an exit strategy. It was time to bet on myself. And so instead of being angry and upset and sitting in a pity puddle that I lost out on my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, I used that as a catalyst to start my business. And that's the origin story of how I started my business.

Pedro 7:50

I love that. It's it's all about turning hardships into opportunities at the end of the day and how you deal with them. Right. So and after you got rolling, right? Who are the people that kept showing up? You know, the ones you realize, okay, this is my tribe. Repeat that for me. This is my what? This is my tribe, you know. The people that because we see a lot of coaches that when they start their their business or their practice, they're trying to help everyone, right?

Brad Federman 8:15

Yeah.

Pedro 8:16

And more often than not, it ends up finding their own niche or they find a way to position themselves to the market. What I'm trying to understand is the the guys that you felt like, hey, this is my type of people that I can actually help, you know?

Brad Federman 8:30

Yeah, yeah. So uh I, you know, I a lot of people do life coaching, they do different kinds of business coaching. Um some people call their stuff coaching and they're really more like experts helping people. You know, I found my niche, uh, my niche, uh, my tribe were um executives in the C-suite that uh that needed um help thinking about processing um strategic decisions uh both externally and internally for their business. And the other part I really uh enjoyed was I enjoyed doing working with people that needed to transition from being an individual contributor to being a leader, right? That's a huge shift, and people get stuck, they get struggle, right? And so those were two areas that I really focused on. The last thing I would say that I I kind of fell into, which I loved, was working with teens on big issues, right? So I worked with uh several organizations and their teams coaching sales leadership on how to strengthen their their sales, right? And uh what's amazing is to see such a significant shift in their sales numbers and their profitability in such a short time. You know, uh I'm thinking of two of them off the top of my head. And we did work around retention and reducing turnover with with HR. We've done, but but working as a team and coaching them uh with the with the with the sales folks, it really was interesting was in both situations, they expected to see a little shift over a year. In in less than three months, they saw a bigger shift than they thought they were going to see in a year, right? So they dramatically changed their business based on the coaching model that we used. And we didn't just coach them, we coached the senior leaders and managers, and then we gave them the tools and capability to coach their people. So, what I loved about doing, and I still love about doing the team coaching or the organizational kind of approach is you can give you can coach the key people and you can give them the tools and create a coaching culture and process for a company to take on themselves so they can become very independent and successful on their own. That's powerful.

Pedro 10:40

That's awesome. But I I had to highlight one thing that I want to ask you and tap into your experience a little bit because I've seen that happening. Have you ever been hired by someone to solve, for example, a big issue, right? That you mentioned, and you're in the middle of it, and you're like realizing the real problem is the guy that hired you. Yes, yes, yes. How do you manage? How do you tell your own client that he's hey, you know what? It it's kind of you.

Brad Federman 11:08

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, that happens more often than people think. And so I've tried to build in some pre-work before I get started so that I can identify that early. And and and you know, I'm gonna think of one particular situation that that comes to mind several years ago. Gosh. I was brought in by um a female leader to work with her team. And basically, her team was, in her words, they weren't good. They lacked bench strength, uh, they were they lacked talent. And in her mind, she wanted to replace them all. And her organization, senior leader, the president of the firm, basically said, We're not going to replace your entire team. You need to develop your team. What are you kidding? So I got called in to fix her team, essentially. That's what happened. So I I actually interviewed her team and talked with her team because I was trying to get, I got her opinion, but I wanted to get their perspective. And it became very clear very quickly that they were not the problem. She was the problem. And uh, and so I sat down with her. And the best way to deal with it is to not go at it and tell the person, it's to get them to figure it out themselves. So, and you got to do it in a way that's not leading, right? I think that's the problem that most coaches have is they want to get their person to a certain place and they use leading questions to get them there. Coaching's about discovery, not leading. So, you know, I just said, hey, listen, um, I'm gonna call this person Lisa because I'm not gonna use their real name. Lisa, you know, when I hear you're saying they're the problem, they don't feel that way. Let's talk about why we think there's a difference. And she said, okay. She said, I'll tell you what, I'm gonna show you what I'm talking about. And I said, Great. And she took out this report that was probably about a hundred pages that one of her employees had created. It was actually a newer employee, fairly new employee that had created it. And they had to work overtime for about two or three weeks to get this done. This was an intense kind of project that you poured yourself into, and it was the first time they had ever done it. And she pulls out this report and she shows me this report and she says, Let me show you what's wrong with this report. And she gives it to me and she said, take a look at it. And from the cover throughout the entire report, she had taken a red pen and torn this thing apart. I mean, I am talking about rewriting. I she literally rewrote sentences and changed the words. I mean, every page was, it looked like it was bleeding. I mean, it was just brutal. And there wasn't any thought process on an employee's part on what they would change. She had basically changed the entire report and said, make these changes, right? Now I knew if I'm a new employee and I worked probably 80 hours a week for about three weeks to try and get this thing done. It was my first project. Seeing a sea of red would be massively deflating. Not only seeing a seeing a sea of red, but seeing a sea of red that doesn't even get me to actually learn anything, that I'm a robotic typist, right? Of what my boss wants me to type is not only deflating, it makes me realize, why did I try? This person's gonna do it, change it all for me anyway, right? So I asked her, I said, if you were new and you had gotten this report, how would that make you feel? You know, from your boss, look like this. And she said, I would feel awesome. I mean, I would be like, I know exactly what I need to do. And I said, Really? You worked for 80 hours a week for three weeks, and this is what you got back, and you would feel awesome. And then I just kept quiet. And she looked at it, she thought about it, she looked up at me and she said, No, I wouldn't. And I said, Tell me why. And she said, Because I didn't have to think at all. I didn't have to figure it out. I worked my tail off, and my boss rewrote the report, but didn't actually rewrite it. They rewrote it in handwriting. No, I have to actually do everything they did in that they wrote out word for word, and I have to change it. I'm a glorified administrative assistant at this point in time. I said, Wow. I said, Okay, so let me ask you this question. If that's how you feel, when you get the next report to do, how would you approach it? She thought about it and she looked at me and she said, I would do the least amount of work possible. I said, Why would you do the least amount of work possible? And she said, Because my boss is gonna rewrite it anyway. And when she said that, she went, Oh my God. Oh my god, I know why my team sucks. I created a monster. They're doing exactly what I trained them to do. And I didn't have to do anything. She did all the thinking and worked through it herself. And I didn't have to tell her her baby was ugly. I didn't have to tell her it was her, right? She did it herself. But when she did it herself, had that aha, she looked at me and she said, help me change that. Help me figure out how to handle this differently. And I said, Okay. And she changed the scope of the project herself. And from there, it was easy.

Pedro 15:56

I love that, man. And I love that you were able to. Here's the thing, and you're right about it. It's not about convincing, it's about a transformational change, but and it's not leading as like an awakening. And I love that. I really like that. Okay. I mean, that's great. And that's the coaching side, right, Brad? Yeah. Now let's talk about the part. Nobody escapes. Well, marketing. Marketing. Marketing. Yeah.

Brad Federman 16:22

So how do people usually find you, Brad? They find us a couple different ways. Obviously, we have we have on site, uh we have an online presence, we have a website. We are heavily involved in writing. So people see us on Substack, they see us on LinkedIn, not just in the company and personally, but they see us doing articles, et cetera. We've written for Forbes, we've written for a bunch of different companies. Uh, we have uh, you know, and me specifically, uh, we've worked with HR Professionals magazine. Um, we're heavily involved in Sherm and some other places. So they see us uh online as in a presence. We also have referrals that we get from our clients. And then we have a we have a marketing approach, but our marketing approach tends to be more thought leadership and reflective of who we are and what we do, rather than a heavy, salesy, cold calling approach or online prospecting approach that is very salesy. Uh we we believe that we should reflect in our marketing process who we are and what we stand for, and that we can't create that kind of noise that a lot of people are creating, right? So these coaches now going and they send you this message that says, I can make you more money, or I could do this for you, or I could and and you don't know the business, you don't know who you're talking to, you're making promises that you may or may not be able to keep. And um, and we don't think that that is really reflective of of the business. So why behave that way? You know, we we're trying to use artificial pain points and scarying people and or pots of gold at the end of the rainbow to get people to move rather than rather than what is coaching? Coaching is a relationship, it's building relationships. We want to build relationships with people. So our marketing focuses on building relationships with people, and uh, and and and we think that that works, right? It it may even be a little slower than some of those other tactics, but here's what remains intact. What remains intact is our reputation, and we don't create false promises and and we have a steady kind of a growth that we can rely on and we we love, right? And I would rather grow responsibly with credibility and trust and relationships and being a trusted advisor than to grow irresponsibly. And I just I use this phrase a lot. I see people using 70s used car tactics on 2026 platforms, and uh, and I I just refuse to go there. I'm not gonna do it.

Pedro 18:49

I think they they got involved too much or in love too much with the hook aspect, and they just 10x it, you know? They're like, oh, I'm gonna have a great hook here, and I'm gonna convince someone I'm gonna do a million for them. But it doesn't really work that way. And okay, I mean that's that's awesome, but I want to talk business for a second. People find you, right? Through your website, referrals, you name it. So when someone actually becomes a client, Brett, what does that experience look like right now?

Brad Federman 19:19

So we're a little different. We use a couple things that differentiate us. Uh, first of all, we use proprietary models. So we have a fast forward change model we use, which helps people shift their thinking and shift their changing. We have a STERS coaching methodology that we use for our questioning approach and things like that. We use a stakeholder process, much like Marshall Goldsmith, where we use internal people to provide feedback to us and/or that person so we we can actually see what's going on internally as opposed to trusting our coache to tell us. You know, my experiences with coaches, they um they try new things and they think that they've made like this huge 180-degree turn when it's so minute that sometimes their people can't even see it, right? And so I liken it to a pebble in your shoe, right? You know, a pebble in your shoe is brutally uncomfortable and it just drives you crazy until you take your shoe off and you remove the pebble pebble and you look at that little pebble and you go, how could it cause that much discomfort? Well, trying new things is like a pebble. It causes you significant discomfort as a coachie. You think you've made this huge stride, and the people you're trying to influence don't even see the changes you're making, right? And so using internal people for feedback, I think is really important. But we have a five-step process that starts with contracting with the coache and/or sometimes their sponsor, if it's in the organization and somebody's sponsoring that effort, making sure we're all on the same page. Everybody knows the ground rules, they know the confidentiality issues, all that stuff, because we are the only thing we've got is our word, right? And and we got to build trust with the coache, right? So we do that. Then we give them a battery of tests. Those tests we give them differ based on what we're supposedly working on because we set goals in that contracting session, but they're general goals. Once we do the assessments and we get a baseline about where they are, then we set specific goals, right? We know here's where you are, here's what you're saying you want to achieve. Okay, here's what we're gonna do. And then we we put a coaching process together. We meet with them regularly. We don't do typically one-off coaching sessions. Most of the things that we we see people wanting to change take six, nine, twelve months. And so we use yearly contract in those kinds of segments. Three is our minimum, and we rarely do that. That's when we only do that when it's a very narrow, focused, specific goal that is easier to change. Like if you told me I'm easily excitable, I get highs and lows, I I react to my people. Sometimes I overreact. I shouldn't do that. I won't do that in three months because that's an emotional intelligence shift. You're wired a certain way, it will take too long, right? So we look at the situation and we Make recommendations to how long. And then so we set up the coaching, and that usually is set up as a regular meeting time. And in between those meeting times, we actually have assignments that you're working on. We debrief those. So it's an ongoing thing. We get feedback across that way. We do quick pulse checks and surveys to know that there's progress being made. We do a final evaluation at the end of that period of time to show significant strides have been made. And then at the end of that period, we either close it out and give them a transition plan on how they can keep this going themselves, or we have identified that there's more they want to work on. Now they've done this. Here's the next step they want to take, and we recontract them for another period of time. And um, and and that's kind of how we we do it. But there's a five-step model and process that we use to make that happen.

Pedro 22:51

Okay. I mean, your work seems pretty hands-on. We're talking about an entire journey here. And I'm not sure about what exactly you're involved, but at least you're involved at certain points, right? Yes. So how do you think about capacity? So don't stretch yourself too thin.

Brad Federman 23:05

Well, first of all, we we don't live with the person. So we might we meet with them for an hour every two weeks or an hour every month. And and so you're not killing yourself in terms of time. There is some work in between because you got to prep for sessions and you've got to get make sure that you have the right potential assignments ready for them and you're prepared for debrief and that kind of thing. So, you know, you're right. You don't stretch yourself too thin in that regard. Uh um, you got to be careful about how many you take on. But the great news is I have other people that coach for us, right? So we've got we've got a model and a process, and we've got other coaches. And so it isn't just about me, it's about a business. I I don't think about this in reference to a coaching practice. I think about Performance Point in terms of a scalable business. So we use technology to help us. And so Gemini, uh a note taker when we meet with folks. Um, we use Performance Point has been a consulting and training firm as well. So we use a lot of things that we bring to the table in other parts of our business to the coaching. So we don't have to go research and look. We've got a lot of things at our fingertips that helps. We actually do certifications on coaching. So in some cases, it's about getting our clients to coach. And and then we have assessments, surveys, and training where we do those trainings and certifications for clients as well around things like cultivating culture. Everdelegating is a is a career growth program built for leaders, uh, servant leadership. So we have other ways that we scale as well. So we can give you a little picky about who we coach. Um, and we like that. So I I would tell you, I think that's that's how we handle it. But we love the journey because we want to actually help somebody make improvements and solve their issues as opposed to feel good for a moment and then go back to where they're going. Real change takes time. And and you don't do that in a coaching session or two. You do that by helping somebody make a transformation. And that transformation is something that is work. And you need to make you're kind of an accountability partner and a reflection for them along the way.

Pedro 25:10

I love that, man. I love the the way you you thought this through, you know, and the structure. Thanks. 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? You also mentioned that, but is it hiring or is there a next step you're excited about? Um no, I am excited about it.

Brad Federman 25:28

And I do want to scale and have plans to scale. So, you know, I think you've got a couple of different factors related to that. The first one is gonna be scaling is about generating more business, right? So we are, you know, in the last year, we have found ways to productively, I'm gonna say that very carefully, productively automate parts of the business, reduce costs, and yet increase revenue. And I'm excited about that. And that allows us to put more money into hiring more salespeople, doing more marketing and branding, uh, which I'm excited about too. I said that's the first part. And I think we we've really gotten to a place where that's been very, very helpful, right? I think that the next part about it is gonna be about hiring more salespeople or distributors or things like that. So we're working through some of those things right now. And then from there, I think the key is gonna be whether we adopt technology, and this is a little bit a little bit further down the road, but whether we adopt technology to support our coaches further or we create more of our own. We've gotten some technology to help us in things, but but I really want to take that whole process and um strengthen it. We've done it with other things, like so, for instance, with our Cultivating Culture program, we actually have an a culture coach that sits on virtual meetings and watches the virtual meetings. We've up we upload your values, your cultural statements to the AI, we train it. And then after the meeting, it gives you feedback as to how well you're living up to your values, where you've done it well and why you did it well and what you need to continue doing and where you may have fallen short and how you might want to tweak things so that you can live up to your values faster, better, and more consistently. And so we've used technology already in a number of different ways to scale things and make things easier for our clients so we don't have to always be there, right? And I think we need to look at the coaching process in that way. One of the things I don't want to do though, and I'm and I'm very clear about this, is I want to do it to augment the human element as opposed to replace the human element. I think in and in and of itself, I'm in a human, in the human performance business, right? And that means it's about relationships. And when it's no longer about relationships, I think I want to just hang my hat. The reason I say that is it loses it its value, its authenticity, authenticity, it's it's it's just not what it should be anymore, right? In the end, the world needs purpose, and purpose comes from connections and relationships. And if when we lose connections and relationships, we'll have a problem. So I my job is to use technology to help us strengthen connections and relationships, not replace them.

Pedro 28:06

I love that, man. The way you framed it. Yeah. You know, and of course, whenever we're aiming towards the next chapter, there's always something we're refining in the present. Like, what are you trying to improve or tighten up in your business right now that, you know, is aligned with the the scaling factor, you know, and that kind of thing.

Brad Federman 28:25

Well, you know, I'll tell you what we what we're doing right now is we we actually had a building, we still have it, and uh, and we are selling our building. We actually sold it, and we're all going virtual and and we're using technology to support us being virtual, which is reflective of what's happening with a lot of our clients. So we are if we're gonna do that with our clients, we need to be able to do it with ourselves. And it's also allowing us to grow beyond a local presence. So right now we've we've we brought in people. I'm in Tennessee. Team was largely in Tennessee, but now I've got somebody in Florida, I've got somebody in New York. We're looking at adding somebody in Dallas, Chicago, DC, that kind of thing. So I think um, I think probably the big thing for us right now in reference to that is putting the systems in place and transitioning to more of a virtual company that um scattered in different places for a couple of reasons. One is I don't want to I want to find the best talent as opposed to who's here. Uh the second thing is I want to be in places where our clients are, right? So if I'm if if I have somebody in Chicago, while some of their work will be virtual, they can actually visit people in Chicago and the Chicago area easier than I can, right? So uh so I think it it's really helpful in that regard. So I would tell you that that's really where we are right now. Um, and we are putting the the the structures in place to make that really successful. And then we will supplement that with times where we will get together maybe once or twice or four times a year um to continue to build relationships in person as well, because I think there's value to that. But yeah, that's kind of where we're going.

Pedro 29:57

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

Brad Federman 30:18

Overrated or misunderstood. I think I think the idea that we have to know everything is overrated. I think the best phrase I've ever heard in business, when it's true, is I don't know, but I'll find out. I think the idea of being transparent and honest that think about it this way. In the 1940s, the most common jobs were secretary and farmer, right? In 2020, the most common jobs are things like SEO or even AIO experts, right? Bio biophysicists and things that you never even thought you'd hear of. And by the way, some of those are disappearing and new ones are being recreated. The world's changed dramatically. Here's just even take the farmer concept for a moment. The farmer back in the day knew the entire farming business, right? But now, if you ask the farmer about their business, in many cases, they don't know the whole business because you're doing genetic modifications and all of the they can't, you can't know all that stuff, right? So the truth of the matter is we've become we've gone from generalized to specialized with massive amounts of change. The truth is none of us know it all, even though many of us want to look like we do. And so being honest and saying I don't know is the best piece of advice I can give you. And the thing that's overrated is always knowing the answer. In fact, when I see somebody who always knows the answer, I want to run the other direction because I don't trust them because there's no way they do. Right.

Pedro 31:45

Or pretending it's just an act, right? Total act, total act. Absolutely. Yeah, that's beautiful. And if someone listening wants to connect with you or follow your work, Brad, where can people find you and connect with you?

Brad Federman 31:56

They can connect with me online and on LinkedIn. They can go to our website, which is uh performance pointlc.com. They can reach me at my email address, which is B Brad as in Brad, B Fetterman, F-E-D-E-R-M-A-N at performance pointlc.com. And they could always uh call my uh my work number, which is not, I think mine's 1548. I I'd see that or I gave you my assistance. But either way, you'll get my you'll get me somehow. So 291-1548, and it's uh area code 901. Any of those ways will work. I love hearing from people, happy to talk. Just gotta schedule it because time gets crazy. So yeah.

Pedro 32:34

Yeah, you know, there were a few things you share today that that really stay with me. So, like your dad's story, you know, about smoking. I just I'm just gonna walk with that into my back pocket. In my case, my seven-year-old eventually asks me that. Okay, I have it, but it's the concept in reality. It's like, you know, really not telling people what to do, instead, make them reflect on their decisions. I think that's perfect. And that's so, so powerful. And I gotta say, uh, the the you're you're being against those easy hooks, the the old tactics, you know, the marketing effort. I really like that. On top of it, how you you mention and how you refer to your clients, not as clients, but as coaches. That's really I think there's something out there. I didn't dive into it, but I know there is a way you think about it, and the partnership being different from a an old style client, you know, it's almost like a like I said, it's a partnership, and and like you mentioned, it's about human connection, right? I also love the fact that you leverage your leverage is the business, it is performance point, right? It's not about bread, it is influenced by bread at certain points, obviously, because you're the owner, but you're not tied to it. So you coach people to coach under your company, and I think that's really impressing, and and it can inspire a lot of coaches out there that they're like, oh, this is the business, is my name, this is my brand, I need to do it to be perfect, you know. And reality is more often than not, it's not perfect, right, Brad? So yeah, and and and and also the fact that you don't want to use AI to replace people, it is more like to empower connection and that human connection. I I really appreciate that. I just think that's so powerful. And I appreciate what you do, man. I appreciate you being here and sharing so openly today. It was great having you on, Brad. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Davis Nguyen 34:36

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.