Scaling Your Expertise with Elaine Powell: Speaking & Coaching

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, host Pedro sits down with Elaine Powell, also known as The Thought Disruptor—a keynote speaker and coach who helps experts turn their voice into impact and income.

Elaine shares her unconventional journey from working with young offenders, traveling to 18 countries, and joining Toastmasters, to becoming a $10K–$15K paid speaker in the US. She breaks down the real difference between what she speaks on and what she coaches on, and why speaking is one of the most powerful one-to-many growth strategies for coaches, leaders, and experts.

You’ll hear honest lessons about burnout, shiny-object syndrome, building credibility, transitioning from free talks to paid stages, and why speaking works best when your foundation is already solid. Elaine also opens up about sales, enrollment conversations, mindset, investing in yourself, and why action always beats overthinking—especially for women.


Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elainepowelluk/
Website:I https://www.mindspeakacademy.com/

Transcript

Elaine Powell 0:00

I coach people in two areas. One, either become a TEDx speaker, or what's evolved now is helping people get paid to speak. Because I'm now I'm in the US. I'm like between a 10 and a 15k speaker. And that that's a lot of learning, a lot of experience. That's taken me a while to get there. But now I help people who want to jump onto that one-to-many. So I just wanted to get some so you had some clarity on what I speak on is not really what I coach on. What I coach on is my speaking.

Davis Nguyen 0:32

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 1:03

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Pedro and today's guest is Elaine Powell, known as The Thought Disruptor, a keynote speaker who helps organizations elevate team performance and unlock real potential. She works with teams facing low morale, missed targets, and declining productivity, giving them practical tools to shift how they think, act, and perform under pressure. Through her think discipline methodology, focuses on who leaders and teams are being, not just what they're doing. Her work helps organizations build integrity, accountability, and productivity that lasts well beyond the keynote, turning everyday challenges into measurable results. Welcome to the show, Elaine.

Elaine Powell 1:53

Thank you. Thank you for having me, Pedro. And thank you for those listening.

Pedro 1:58

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

Elaine Powell 2:11

Yes. Um I've been working with young offenders for seven years and I really loved it, but it wasn't enough. And um I decided I was gonna go off traveling around the world. So I put everything in storage and I went to 18 countries in one year, it was amazing. I didn't have to I wasn't working, so you know, a whole year of not working. And then when I came back, it just wasn't enough for me. I think you know, going out into the world, you expand who you are, you meet incredible people, and so I started looking for things that I could do in a new career that I didn't have to go back and study for five, six, seven years, whatever, you know, to become a psychologist or or something like that. So I tried many different things. That entrepreneurial spirit was in me. So I tried doing property, it didn't really work out for me. I tried network marketing, and then somebody told me about a charity that went into schools delivering public speaking. And I'd been a member of something called Toastmasters. Are you aware of Toastmasters? Me personally, no. Okay. It's an amateur speaking club that's all around the world. I'm sure they'll be in Brazil, they're they're in mostly every city, and you can go twice a month and you practice five-minute speeches, someone gives you feedback. It's there to evolve you as in the art of speaking. It doesn't really teach you the business of speaking, but it teaches you how to speak, and it's such a supportive network that a lot of people, myself included, when I joined, I was very nervous speaking in front of people, and so they were very encouraging, they're there to support you, and it's super, super affordable. Um so because I'd been doing Toastmasters for like six, seven months, I had this history of working with young people. When the opportunity came to go into schools to deliver public speaking, I was like, that's a perfect fit. So that's where my kind of journey into the realms of being a public speaking coach, and that's more of what I coach on. It's not what I speak on anymore, but that's where it all started.

Pedro 4:20

I love that. I love how you were you were talking about how you you tried many different things, right? So sometimes people they look at someone and they're like, oh, she got it easy, no, oh, she's all the she's all that and she made it now, you know, but they don't know the struggle, right? What happened in the in the in the backstage, let's call it like that. So at what point did it stop feeling like a side thing or a calling and start feeling like an actual business you were responsible for?

Elaine Powell 4:50

Yeah, I think when I started telling people, you know, what I coach on, they said, Can you come and speak on that topic? And I was like, Okay. I think I have one of these characters that I don't think too much before I take action. Um I know sometimes us women we can overthink too much and doubt ourselves, can I do this? What if this happens? But I think I've just always been okay, and off I go, and then I'll fall and I'll pick myself back up again. And yeah, that's how it started, just going out speaking for free. And I remember my first speaking engagement. It was a room of 30 people. A friend had asked me to come and speak on a topic, and I was like, what topic? Like, give me one. Now it's like these are my topics, and I think I spoke on confidence, something around confidence, and it's really I can see why people get um so um enthralled by performance because the connection with an audience, how you see them like um react, how they what they come and say to you afterwards, it's really infectious. Um, I was just um yeah, I was uh obsessed with it thereafter. That's how it kind of started.

Pedro 6:04

When you when you're in front of a great speaker, at at least in my perspective, it gives you goosebumps, right? It's like, oh my god, this is amazing. So yeah, 100%. I get that. Once you were out there helping people, right, Elaine, who did you naturally end up attracting? Because in the coaching space, especially, and like you told me yourself, uh, we try sometimes to do in embrace the entire world, let's say it like that. So when did you realize, yeah, these are the people I work best with?

Elaine Powell 6:33

Yeah, well, first of all, I was coaching organizations. Um so you can obviously you can do B2B or B2C. There might be another B2som, I'm just not aware of it. They're the kind of main two ones. And so B2B, what would happen is I'd speak at I got well known, you know, the more you go out speaking, the more people then will ask you to come and speak somewhere, or you just have a conversation with somebody and you say, Yeah, I I'm a speaker, and uh they go, Oh, what do you speak on? That's the first thing they ask, and then they'll say, Ah, you know, hopefully then the conversation will go, or a lot of mine came from referrals, people seeing me speak, and then they'd refer me to somebody else. But it it it's like a lead magnet. So I would go out speaking on communication skills at that time. I don't speak on that topic anymore, and then afterwards, after the speaking engagement, people would either come up to me and say, you know, can you speak at our organization or do you do training and workshops in that? So that was like my lead magg. I would then go in and I'd say coaching is for me more one-to-one. I don't know your your definition of coaching. That's more how I see coaching. I know we have group coaching as well, but I was going in doing training. So you might see it as coaching. I kind of saw it as training. The B2C came in a bit later on, but I was going into organizations, delivering one day per public speaking workshops, sometimes two days.

Pedro 8:08

What were some of the things you experimented with as you figured out how to get visible and attract the right people, you know, that right ICP.

Elaine Powell 8:16

Yeah, I d I don't think I was conscious of it when I first started uh training or coaching. And for those that aren't aware, to be is business to business. I'm a business, and then I go into organizations and be B2C is business owner to a customer, usually an individual person, which is where like you know, I I evolved and eventually went into that type of um coaching. But yeah, repeat your question again.

Pedro 8:42

I mean, in the early days, right? What were some of the things you you tried with as you figure out how to get the right people, you know? The right the the the the the per the people you said, hey, I need to find these this exact type of people because this will I don't know, more impact, more revenue, you name it.

Elaine Powell 9:00

Yeah, that definitely wasn't my thinking at the beginning. You know, people do say find your client avatar. I think a lot of us find it organically. You know, we can think that we want to work with this type of people, um, but then they're not attracted to us. You know, they say the audience will tell you what their need is. Like clients will come to you and then you'll go, Oh, I'm getting lots of executives, or I'm getting lots of coaches themselves. So I think mine's definitely been organic. The B2B was in a way easier because there's usually only one or two gatekeepers and it's not their their income, it's not their money. So they're they're a bit more inclined to like book you. Whereas a business to an individual person, they've worked hard for that money. They really want to make sure that they're gonna get the end result. So that B2C has has has taken a long, longer time for me. And I I always used to say no to people who wanted individual coaching because they really want that result, and you really have to know how to deliver on that result because we know there's a lot of unhappy people who've been coached and they're not getting the result that they'd paid for. So it's been organic for me.

Pedro 10:16

Yeah, I love that because I had guests that were like t talking to me and they were like, you know, Pedro, it is coaching for specific women, 30 to 45, but I got these requests from men that they want to be coached by me, you know, and and they shift their their entire business because of that. So, in a way, I get it. It it is organic and it needs to have that connection, right? And sometimes you just don't attract a certain type of people. That makes perfect sense, and it's only fair. Now, let's talk about mechanics behind the scenes for a moment, right? So when someone decides to work with you, let's say they've been into an event or a referral happened. Oh, so what does that actually look like from their perspective? You know, the onboarding. How how did that happen?

Elaine Powell 11:02

Yeah, see, my my business is slightly different now because back in the day I was going out speaking about speaking. So it was very easy for me to either do workshops or for someone to come to me after to say, Oh, do you coach me on speaking? But now, so when I first started out, especially in the world of speaking, you have your area of expertise and that's what people are asking you to speak on. And I love speaking about communication skills, but I loved mindset. And I'd been doing personal development for like 15 years, and I really wanted to go out speaking on thinking and mindset, but I felt I didn't have the experience or the knowledge to do that. But an event organizer asked me, what other topics can you speak on? I was like, Oh, I can speak on mindset. I said, Okay. And and so gradually, like the speaking was here and the mindset was here, and gradually it began to overtake the the speaking. So when I go out now speaking, I'm speaking on thinking concepts, and so the back end of the speaking concepts is maybe a three-hour group workshop or a three, four-part series. So when it comes to public speaking or speaking, it's a different, it's a different back end now because I do Facebook ads and webinars. So let me just take a step back. How how did that come about? So I was going out speaking, delivering workshops, that was like my lead generator, and then the pandemic happened. And a lot of speakers said, oh dear, and we all jumped online. And you remember that mass exodus of people like jumping online, figure out, and lots of people who hadn't been in that industry suddenly became coaches. And so we I had to figure out, okay, how am I gonna I I I can do virtual presenting, but that that's gonna be less. Whereas coaching, so I was like, well, public speaking, and then I ran um a a year-long program on pub on getting paid to speak. I don't know why I did a whole year as my first coaching program.

Pedro 13:09

Goodness.

Elaine Powell 13:10

I was regretting it like three months into it. I was like, Elaine, that's way too long for your first time. So I learned from that, and then you know, I made it shorter, and then I jumped on something called Clubhouse. Do you remember Clubhouse? It was um audio, an audio-based uh platform, social platform where we'd have rooms talking about specific topics, and I would go into the ones talking about TED and TEDx, because I'd been a TEDx curator in London for three years, and everybody on that panel was either TEDx coaches, TEDx speakers, but none of them had run events. So I kind of contacted the main person, said, Oh, yeah, I want to be on your panel, I can give a different perspective. And I started to watch people like give lead magnets. If you, you know, I'll give you a free ebook and you can jump into my mailing list. And I was it was pandemic, so I was looking for how can I make some money out of my skill set, my expertise. So that was a really that I think that was my first foray into the whole mechanics of you know, give a lead magnet, create the back end, the emails, the email automations. And then uh I started to run, I think it was like every three-week masterclass, I'd call it a masterclass. So over the years that now that's evolved the past three years. Um, I ran a group TEDx Pro programme to help people become TEDx speakers, and so it would be Facebook ads, a webinar, and then because mine was high ticket, it was book a call. And so, you know, I had to learn the sales coaches. You have to learn sales, the sales uh process, and then you also know how to if you're you can do one-to-one, but at some point it's going to become very limiting. So then I had to learn how to it was easy for me, easier I think, because I'm a speaker, so I know how to manage groups. So in terms of a Zoom group, I was and I train people, it was easy for me to run group programs, so that that's kind of where I am now. I go out speaking on thinking disciplines and do some workshops on it, but I don't really coach people on it. I coach people in two areas. One, either become a TEDx speaker, or what's evolved now is helping people get paid to speak, because I'm now I'm in the US, I'm like between a 10 and a 15k speaker, and that that's a lot of learning, a lot of experience. That's taken me a while to get there, but now I help people who want to jump onto that one to many. So I just wanted to get some c so you had some clarity on what I speak on is not really what I coach on. What I coach on is my speaking.

Pedro 15:53

I love that. Okay. I mean your work seems pretty involved, right? We're talking about speaking gigs, we're talking about training people towards a speaking gig also. So how do you think about managing your time and energy so the business doesn't start owning you? Pedro.

Elaine Powell 16:10

I feel like I feel like it still does. I feel like and it is like I've I emotionally on average work twelve, thirteen hours a day. And the thing is I love it, I enjoy it, so I don't want to stop sometimes. I have to stop myself from working. So um I give myself like Saturday off and sometimes a bit of Sunday, but I do yeah, I do. But I've you know I've I've had team members and then that's kind of ebbed and flowed, um, depending on how my business is going. And now I've got a couple of more teams and members. So I'm looking to scale now so that I can have more free time because it's not sustainable.

Pedro 16:53

No, okay, at least you're aware of that. I love it. Now, Elaine, looking forward a bit. What's the direction you're aiming this business towards? Are you thinking more about growth, leverage, building a team, or refining what already worked, you know? What feels most exciting, right?

Elaine Powell 17:09

Still the speaking. That's always gonna be like my I like performance, so that that's part of it. And it's a great lead generator. It's a pity I'm not speaking on the topic that I coach on. Uh that would have been perfect alignment if I was talking about communication skills, then that would have been such a great lead magnet, but I like talking about thinking. I think it was November last year I hired a marketing team, so they've been working with me on all the elements it takes to kind of scale an online group coaching program. You know, I I ran it by myself uh for like a year and a half. Then I stopped for a year. It was it was getting too much. I felt burnt out, so I did get burnt out. And then I was just coaching high-ticket one-to-ones on getting paid to speak or become a TEDx speaker. And then last year I was like, no, I actually need to have a team behind me because I want to scale and I want to be out there making more of a difference to more people than just these one-to-ones. So, you know, now I have a team behind me, someone who uh, you know, manages the Facebook ads, someone who does the graphics, whether it's on the landing page, the Facebook ads, someone who does the copy, copy for emails, landing pages, then someone who looks after the like the back end we use Go high level, so the SMS, all the things that go on on those that platform. And yeah, we I have a couple of researchers for TEDx. So it is basically scaling, but you can't scale really without a team.

Pedro 18:42

Yeah, you you have to find someone uh that can replace you so you can be on your zone of genius, right? So you can be at the speaking gig. So you don't end up missing those important emails, you don't end up missing follow-ups, so that makes perfect sense. No worries about that. And you know, even when things are going well, there's always something under construction, right? So what's the main thing you're actively working on or trying to prove in your business right now?

Elaine Powell 19:08

Yeah, I think it's the thing that a lot of coaches are trying to work through, which is getting qualified leads. Qualified um and it it depends on what your qualified means for you. For me, it means people who are five to ten years already in their area of expertise, and this is like the next level for them. So sometimes I get people who are starting out coaching and they come to me and they they see that speaking is a viable route for them, but I'm just very transparent and I say, How many rabbits can you chase at once? And they usually say one. I said, Yeah. Speaking is a long-term strategy, and it works so much better when you've already got consistent clients, you've got consistent income, and now you're thinking, okay, now what's next for me to raise my visibility, my credibility? Whereas if you try and go into this world of speaking and you still don't have enough clients and you don't have enough money, well, you're going to be diluting your time and attention. And that's what I see a lot of coaches do. They they've they've got the shiny ball syndrome go going on, you know, the shiny ball syndrome.

Pedro 20:22

Mm-hmm.

Elaine Powell 20:22

Yeah. Well, there's a shiny ball. I mean, like I actually have a fire. Here's another shiny. Yeah, here's a shiny, here's another shiny ball. Here's a shiny ball. And they don't focus on one thing until it's complete and solid. You can breathe. And then you go, okay, now let me give my time, my attention to something else. So, you know, for me, there there's always, and a lot of coaches, of finding people who are at that right stage, they want it now, they're thinking, like I know that that's part of our conversation in the enrolment when we speak to a potential new client, is to get them present to all their pains, all their concerns, and their, you know, their their vision of where they want to be. And then they have, this is where you are now. How are you gonna get there? And people who can get past this and not, oh, what if this, what if that? And then they let me go and think about it, and then they go and think themselves out of it. So I think we're always trying to find people who are a bit like us, who just like I'm looking, I'm looking for those who just let's go, let's go, let's go.

Pedro 21:26

I love that. You know, the shiny board, a shiny object, or the the butterfly, right? I always I had I had people in the past that were like my my bosses that were like that, so they kept changing projects and you never knew if it clicked or not, right? And also as an entrepreneur, I I I need to know I need to focus on one big thing, you know, and move the needle towards that. So that makes perfect sense. And Elena, I w I wanna do something now a little lighter for a moment. Yeah, I've got a quick rapid fire game if you're depth for it. Yeah, always. Okay. Think about investments you've made in the business, right? Coaching programs, hires to marketing z any of it. You know, I'll throw out a prompt and you answer with whatever comes to mind first. Stories are welcome. Okay. What was the very first investment you ever made into your business?

Elaine Powell 22:18

I've made like coaches, you know, speaker coaches along the route, but I think the biggest investment was the pandemic, where I knew that in order to grow a business, you have to have an email list. And I I didn't have a big email list. So I spent, I think it's like 12,000 on learning how to run summits. You know the summits where you have like 20 speak 20 guests and then you interview them or they have slots. So I ran a summit and uh got my email list up to I think 1,200, and then I ran a webinar, and that's when I sold that year-long speaker program.

Pedro 22:54

Right.

Elaine Powell 22:55

I made about 50,000, so it was great for my first ever launch of anything. But yeah, I think that's the most significant. But I've had speaker coaches along the way.

Pedro 23:06

Okay. And what's the most recent investment you've put money into?

Elaine Powell 23:10

Yeah, this marketing team that's a team of six that are helping me to scale and run my program to support people to become TEDx speakers.

Pedro 23:19

Okay. And looking back, what investment paid off the most and why?

Elaine Powell 23:24

Well, I think I have to go back to the uh oh yeah, uh I think it it's it was a personal development course that I did in 2000 with Landmark Worldwide and I'd been working in law, and a lot of people don't seem to be reluctant to pay on personal development. I don't know why. I'm like, that's the the engine that's running your ship. And if your engine isn't running, if your engine is is gonna kaput soon or it's got rust in the carburetor, it's gonna break down. Why don't you spend time developing your inner self? So I did a lot of courses with Landmark Worldwide and transformed my life, my career. I left a a career in law, went to work with young people, became more fearless, understood me. So I think that has been the best. And I still do their programs 20-something years on.

Pedro 24:14

Okay. And what what's one investment you'd think twice about if you could rewind, you know? Kind of wish your money back. Oh my gosh.

Elaine Powell 24:24

I don't know. I don't know if any of them, Pedro, if I'm being honest, because I come from the thinking that there'sn't there's no getting it wrong. Because I'm always learning something. And even ones that didn't pay off financially or the way I thought they did, they always taught me something. I think it's a waste if if you go, oh, I really regret this. Well, what was the learning? There's always two sides to everything. Two sides, night and day, black and white. Yes, it didn't work the way you thought it would, but what else did you learn? How did you grow? What was the hindsight? So I don't I don't think there is any investment that I'm like, no.

Pedro 25:03

Yeah, I like the mindset. And hearing those side by side, how has your mindset around investing in the business changed over time? If it has, right? It doesn't sound like it did, but let's hear it.

Elaine Powell 25:14

How has it has it shifted at all? I think I'm just more aware of paying somebody who has expertise to get me there quicker because I see it so much with people. Their worry more is about money than it is about time. Time is never coming back. I see people who go away, they think about something two years, three years, five years, and then they come back and then they go, Oh, I regret waiting for so long. Well, you valued money more than time. Time is precious, time is valuable. I rather pay somebody who can get me there much quicker and actually earn that will earn me more money than trying people trying to do things by themselves. I'm like, why? Why? Just because of the money. You can make money back just like that. You can borrow it, you can put it on a credit card and pay it off. That's what I did with that 12,000 um build in my emails. Put it on a credit card, made back 55,000, paid off the credit card. There you go. Bish bash bosh. Done. That's very British, bish bash bosh.

Pedro 26:16

Actually, I'm gonna take note of that over the pawn, right? Let's talk about British. You know, you've been around long enough to see trends come and go. People give business advice non-stop, especially online. Now, what's something you hear repeated a lot that you think people misunderstand or overvalue? In terms of coaching? In terms of business, of coaching, you name it, it's like something that it's online and you're like, oh my god, this is not really people are really not getting, or I'll give you a quick example. It's like I heard people talking about grinding, right? And just put it in the hours. And sometimes it's not just about grinding, it's about working smart. So that's just an example on top of my head. But what would be one that you think people just don't get it?

Elaine Powell 27:04

I'd say it takes it does take a lot to have individual people trust you enough to put their money in you, and sometimes it's not trusting you, it's actually trusting themselves. It's like a mirror image, it's being reflected back to them, but they're they're kind of unaware of that. And I'd say just growing your business, it it takes time. And I think people think that they're, you know, they give up jobs and they think that they're gonna make the same amount of money in six months. No, it must take you about two years. It takes it takes a while. You have to water it. And the other thing I'd say is uh connections, knowing people who know people, or just sometimes it's very isolating being a coach. And so we I'm this this year is really about connection, connecting frequently with other people, having conversations, just even in a conversation gives you aha moments versus working in silo. I think so many times we work by ourselves as coaches and we don't have enough conversations with peers, you know, just other people in our network. So now I'm in LA, I'm gonna be out there networking more and more and more, joining associations, just having more conversations, because that's where that's where transformation happens, is in the communication.

Pedro 28:20

Yeah, I love that. Especially when we're like, and I'm also a career coach, so sometimes we see people talking like, oh, his his competitor, right? I'm not gonna talk with him. But that sometimes it's just like coming from a scarcity mindset and not in an abundance mindset, which is he could be networking with me, uh people that is not actually his ICP, you know, and I could be doing the same stuff. So that makes perfect sense, and I love that. So you got the question right. I love it.

Elaine Powell 28:49

Well, in in the world of speaking, we usually network closely with people who speak on our topics because many times they can't speak for whatever reason, so they'll recommend me or I'll recommend them, or I'll speak at an engagement and I'll know that I know this isn't career coaching, but a lot of coaches aspire to be speakers, but it's a good example of it. I'll speak at an event and obviously they're not gonna have me back the next year. So they say, Who can you recommend? And so I recommend my peers. So yeah, that's why, even though you're in the same field, yes, don't yeah, I I don't see it's it's the abundance. There's come from the world of abundance, there's enough for everybody.

Pedro 29:29

Yeah, okay. And on the flip side, what's something boring or not as hype that you wish more people actually paid attention to?

Elaine Powell 29:36

Boring. It's got like hype. Are you talking about coaches?

Pedro 29:41

Or you name it business coaches. You can pick whatever you want.

Elaine Powell 29:46

This is yours pot, like I th I think knowing how to sell. I think a lot of people don't know how to sell. And and even there, there's a different language I use really. Um people don't know the enrolment. You have to enroll people into something that's possible and then you can register them. Then you can, you know, uh then you can sign them up. But if they're not enrolled, so I don't I don't usually say the sales conversation bit. No one wouldn't understand what I mean if I say the enrolment conversation, but you have to enroll them into what's possible. And I think people don't realise that your business is sales, because without sales, you have no business, you have no money. So really get really understand what it takes to take people from point A to point B that they can see what's possible for them in their life.

Pedro 30:35

Yeah, this is like the analogy of the summer body, right? Everyone, everyone wants to do the summer body, but nobody wants to put the workout every day, right? And sales just part of the workout. It's like the enrollment, and and of course, sales is part of the enrollment process, but it's like, yeah, man, you're not gonna do everything all the time that you love, right? There's some times that you just need to do it and just push through it to get to the peak, to get to that summer body. Does that make sense?

Elaine Powell 31:02

Yeah, or you pay someone, you know, that's the pay some, make a list, we know that one, make a list of all the things uh you don't like doing or it's not worth your time, and then pay someone seven dollars, you know, or ten dollars wherever they are to do like um I I have a database of uh all the TEDx open TEDx applications where people can just sign up right now in the US and the UK. It used to take me hours and hours. So now I just pay someone $70 a week and they update it and they do that all for me. And that that's not what I charge, and you know, that's that's like eight dollars an hour. I don't charge that. I charge a lot more. So it's worth spending that money so you can focus on you know the value that you can bring, the price you can bring.

Pedro 31:49

Yeah, but there's something that I need to emphasize and highlight that I love is the fact that you've done you've been there and done that. So it's not just outsourcing, it is outsourcing, but you know the process and you know what good looks like, right?

Elaine Powell 32:02

Exactly.

Pedro 32:03

Yeah, yeah, that that's perfect. So, Elaine, before we close this up, if someone resonated with what you shared and wants to follow your work, where should they go?

Elaine Powell 32:12

Well, yeah, they can find me. Just type in Elaine Powell on Google and you'll find me. Sometimes UK distinguishes me a bit more. You can find me on LinkedIn, Elaine Powelluk, Instagram, Elaine Powell UK, Facebook, Elaine Powelluk. Like you make it easy for people.

Pedro 32:29

Don't give them all these different tags. Right. I love that. You know, there were a few moments from this chat that really stood out to me. Okay. First, how open you are, right? You tried so many different things. And and you're like, and I did that, and I and I had a law uh I I tried a lot. I try I was, you know, you tried so many stuff. It's not like I had this perfect life and everything happened, and so, you know, I love that. Being vulnerable. I think that's the key word is vulnerability because more often than not, we require we require that from our coaches, right? But sometimes we don't see coaches being so vulnerable. So I I need to commend you on that. And I thought it was curious the fact that you travel 18 countries and you're doing this for what? You told me pre-interview, 18 years, right? Pre-podcast, you're like, hey, it's been doing 18 years, so that's a match. So then again, about vulnerability, a year-long speaking coaching program you made, and you're like, why did I do one year? You know, um, I love it. I love how authentic you are. Um I love the fact that you're easy to jump on stuff you love, right? Oh, there's a mindset opportunity for me to talk about. I'm gonna hop on, you know. I love that. You know, that that's almost like a a driving force of nature. And as much as there is ups and downs, and sometimes you're like, oh, I don't think this through right, but at the same time, it is what it is, and it brought you here where you are right now. Okay. So I commend you on that as well. And I gotta say, I love the fact that you're you told me the the business is still kind of owning you, you know. Elaine, you don't try to play an act and it tells. And this is why your speaking, I would say, gigs and your speaking career is so great and so awesome because it is just Elaine by by Elaine, right? So I really appreciate you taking the time being open with this. It was great having you.

Elaine Powell 34:26

Thank you. Yeah, I mean, I do have a team of seven now. Of course. Yeah, but it is me front and center. And um, can I just say one more thing?

Pedro 34:35

Absolutely.

Elaine Powell 34:35

It's it's to the to also the ladies out there, the women out there, um, because I I've found over the years an example of quick story. I used to go in when I went to schools and I was doing public speaking workshops, and I'd have 15 boys, 15 girls, and the aim of the workshop was to get them to do a two-minute speech without any notes at the end of the work day. So they're all very scared. And I'd do a icebreaker and then I'd say, Can I have fit five people to the front of the room? Do you know who'd run to the front of the room? The boys. And the girl the girls would just sit there. And this happened so many times. I had to like stop and go, Look, I see what's happening. The boys, they're just they just go for it, they don't think about it. But the girls, after I'd spoken to them, they're overthinking, can I do this? Am I good enough? Am I ready? And I had to say, look, girls, these boys are gonna turn into men and they're gonna keep on running. And you're gonna jump into this world of business, coaching, wherever or you're an executive, and if you keep on overthinking things, you're gonna be on the back foot while all these men are gonna be getting the jobs because they're they're not thinking about it too much. So I want to say, ladies, if you think it, it feels aligned with you and your emotions, and your intuition says go for it. Your job is you think it, and this is the result. You have to shorten that thinking process and just trust yourself. You can do it. Because trust me, men aren't thinking too much, they're falling forward and they're learning as they go, and we need to adopt that a lot more. So I just wanted to give that to our ladies. Stop overthinking and take action and learn through taking action. You won't learn. You know what thinking gets you, Pedro? You tell me more thinking. That's all it gets you. It the only thing it doesn't. That's all it gets you is more thinking. The only thing that gets you results is action, action, action. So you've got to take action, learn from it. Like in the world of speaking, our performances are never perfect. It's this worked, this didn't work. If this didn't work, what can I put in place the next time? The next time I do it, I perform, this worked, this didn't work. That's how you have to like don't think it's gonna be perfect, ladies. Let go of perfection. I just wanted to say that to all the women out there.

Pedro 36:56

I love that. Okay, so if the ladies got this right, learn from men and don't think too much. Okay? Just do it. Just do it. Love it. Great having you, Elaine.

Elaine Powell 37:08

Thank you for having me, and thank you for the person listening.

Davis Nguyen 37:11

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.