The Journey to Better Leadership with Pallavi Ridout

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, host Pedro sits down with executive coach and leadership strategist Pallavi Ridout, founder of Elm Advisory Group. With more than 20 years of experience in corporate leadership, Pallavi shares her inspiring journey from leading talent management across 34 countries to building her own executive coaching practice.

She explains how executive coaching works with senior leaders—from structured coaching sessions to 360-degree feedback and leadership development strategies that help executives move from operational thinking to strategic leadership.

Pallavi also talks about handling burnout, navigating personal challenges while leading teams, and why the human side of leadership is often the key to real business success. She shares practical insights on setting meaningful goals, building momentum in your career, and creating a life and leadership style with no regrets.

If you’re a coach, entrepreneur, executive, or leader, this episode is packed with valuable lessons on leadership growth, coaching frameworks, and building a meaningful career.

Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pallaviridout/
Website: https://www.engageleadmotivate.com/

Transcript

Pallavi Ridout 0:00

I work one to one. So, you know, there there are things like, you know, you coach um a person individually, you can do what is called group coaching, right? That's what you're talking about, team coaching. I specialize in one-on-one coaching uh with senior leaders. So what that looks like is if you have a six month engagement with me, we would have, you know, at least a call every other week. So about 12 calls in the six-month engagement. I also, you know, take my time to get to know you as a person. So I believe in whole person development and whole person leadership. So when I was in corporate a while ago, I had some leaders who, and I till date remember this, I was going through a really tough time. My marriage was crumbling. Okay. I was under a lot of pressure to say yes to the CHRO role or not. This particular leader was new and they were heading up. Ultimately, I would have been reporting into them. And they said, take some time off and deal with your mess.

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, go 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 Pelavi Riddow, the founder of the Elm Advisory Group, who helps leaders and teams reach their highest potential and bring their best selves to work. With over 20 years in corporate America, she now focuses on executive coaching, high impact leadership and team development workshops, and facilitation for strategic planning sessions, offsites, and leadership retreats. Pallavi works across industries, including entertainment, internet, and aerospace, guiding executives, C-suite officers, senior leaders and teams, whether high functioning, struggling, or anywhere in between, to overcome challenges in leadership, communication, and teamwork. Known for her thoughtful, customized approach, she equips clients with practical frameworks and solutions that transform both people and organizational performance. Welcome to the show, Pavy.

Pallavi Ridout 2:38

Thank you, Pedro. Excited to be here. And when you read that intro, I'm like, dang, I do all that? That's pretty cool.

Pedro 2:44

I love it. Okay, we're gonna have fun, guys. Everyone listening, you can already tell. Okay. And you know, Pavy, great to have you. From the moment we met before the podcast, I was already having a blast. And now I want to dive into the origin story, okay? Rewind a bit. Because every coach has that moment where they look at their life and say, Yeah, I guess this is what I'm doing now. Right? So, when was that for you?

Pallavi Ridout 3:09

Yes, my origin story, it is rooted in a lot of pain. So I was feeling pain. What was the pain I was feeling? I was doing really well in corporate leading international teams. So I was running a um, I was heading up talent management at this organization that I absolutely love working at. My leadership was fantastic. I had buy-in to do whatever big program we were rolling out, and and people were eager and hungry for it. So, from that point of view, everything was fantastic. And I was running 34 countries. So it was a very high pressure role to be present, you know, 24-7. I also, at that point, my son was four or five years old. Um, you know, he was born a few years before he joined that company. So I found that I was not a present mom, one. I was always stressed out when I was at home. And I also found that as I was doing more and more of that role, um, I had started to do more operational type work for HR. I had as a great reputation in the company. So they they said, you know what, we want to tap you to be ahead of HR. And it was so phenomenal to hear that and to be groomed to be in that position. But a few years into it, as I was being groomed to set up, it occurred to me that I actually wasn't enjoying that at all. And it was creating some, you know, stress, massive stress, which manifested in physical symptoms to me. And I didn't know back then there was a connection. Your body talks, right? When you're having a a tough time. So I had knee pain, my hair was falling out. And I also was going through, you know, things about life in general. Like I was asking myself existent existential questions. Who are you? Why are you here? What's your purpose? Why were you put on this planet? And one of the things I really enjoyed doing is helping people, communities, giving back. And I found that because I led such a busy lifestyle, I wasn't really giving back to the world, the community, people, so environment, you know, some of these are my causes. And that was creating a big gaping hole in my heart. And so I sat down and made the decision. It wasn't easy. But uh when I told my CEO I was leaving, he said, Where are you going? What what role are you taking? We were offering you ahead of HRE. I said, I am not going to any other company. I really enjoyed being here and I'm gonna miss the people, but this is not what I was meant to do. So I I exited and I started my own shop. So that's my original story.

Pedro 5:45

Hmm. Okay, interesting. Now I want to understand one thing, right? It was when in the you step out of corporate America and you decided to run your own practice. Okay, so when did it shift from I'm helping people in the coaching space or I'm trying to do this? And there's a lot of trial and error at that first step sometimes. I'm not sure if that's your background, but to when when the shift happened to I'm helping people to I'm building a real business around this, you know?

Pallavi Ridout 6:13

So part of my origin story is I lost both my parents within 13 months of each other. And I was still working in corporate then. And uh my my mom passed first, and my father passed 13 months later. And I really looked up to him. He just was a phenomenal human being and was part of the reason I was in corporate, is he was a CEO. So I was following in his footsteps, right? From when I was growing up, I was like, oh, I want to be a manager. How many children growing up say I want to be a manager? Probably not too many. But he also paved an amazing path where he showed me what does it look like to lead teams and people, but also be present for the people outside who may not be able to give back, or or you know, not give back, who may not be able, are not as as fortunate, perhaps, right? So he showed me this balanced way of living. And after my mom passed, a few months after that, I remember sitting down with him and it gave me a chill up and down my spine when he said these words. He said, I am I I've had three children and I'm very proud of them. I'm happy, I'm content, and I'm ready. So I knew exactly what he meant by ready, and I was shocked for him to hear that because our mom my mom had just passed away. So he was basically telling me, I'm ready to exit this world because I am so content with everything I've done. And I turned around and asked myself, am I content? And the answer was no, you are not content. I want to do so much. So to answer your question, when did it switch to becoming a true business? I had no choice to make it, you know, I I wanted to lead a life of no regrets. So that is my philosophy. I've coined that term, it's a book I'm writing. So to me, I truly wanted to live a life where I wasn't gonna regret not having quality time with my son, not being able to give back, or do work that brought me joy, that really lit me up. So in the intro, you know, you said all these great things about me, so thank you. But I have to say, Pedro, what you didn't say also is that I'm a keynote speaker. I go up on stage and I speak. It gives me so much joy to share this with people. I also emcee like conferences and live events where I bring entertainment and education to people. I wasn't able to do that in corporate because it needed a lot more time. So when I decided to start my business, I also became a single mom. So I had no choice. I had to monetize, I had to put the systems in place, and I had a fire under me because if I my business didn't succeed, I would have to go back to corporate that I had decided that wasn't what I wanted to do. So does that answer your question? I went in a roundabout way.

Pedro 8:52

I think it does. You know, you had no option, so you just went full on gas and start building your practice, right? The shift was when you left corporate America. And at the same time, you're looking at your dad, right? And his like content, and that reflects on you. You're like, oh my God, I need to find that inner peace, you know. Am I content with my own life and my own footsteps? Wow, that's powerful, actually. Got me the shivers here. What I what I want to understand is like, because there's a big shift, right? And you start your own practice. So after you got rolling, who are the people that kept showing up? You know, I'm not sure I'm the events or the clients. I want to understand how did you end up uh finding your own tribe, you know, the people you work best with.

Pallavi Ridout 9:39

How did I find my tribe? So my ideal clients, is that would that be?

Pedro 9:42

That's a way to put it.

Pallavi Ridout 9:43

Yeah, okay. All right. So for those of you starting out, right, you're wondering how do I find my tribe is you have to be very clear on who you are and what you bring to the table, right? Who are you serving? So uh there's this Joe, there's this maestro, right? He is he's amazing. He he's this conductor of music, and uh, you know, he's very famous, and you know, everybody wants it. So one day he uh conducts the music and then he gets into a cab in New York City, let's say, and he says, you know, just you know, drive and the cabby says, Where? He's like, go anywhere, everybody wants me. Just go wherever you want to go. So that's not how life works, right? You know, he can't just go on the street and start conducting music. Um, so a lot of times when people start their business, especially in the coaching world, is that oh, I can serve anybody. Well, you can serve anybody, but do they want you? Do they relate to you? Why should they pick you? So I had to sit myself down, I ask myself, who can I serve best and who would I also enjoy serving best? So I I lean back into my experience. So what is my experience? I was I was a strategic leader. I'm a strategic leader still, but I was a leader of people. I had global experience. I wasn't a traditional, you know, talent management HR person who was only embedded in that function. I actually was giving uh I was I was partnering with my business leaders, and I was a true partner with them. So I understood business, but I understood people as well. So then I I said to myself, okay, I'm comfortable with senior leaders. They seem to like to sit down and talk to me, right? They've taken my in the back back when I was in corporate coaching, and I'm gonna put this in quotes for those who may not be watching a video. Like to me, coaching was advice giving. Coaching is not advice giving in the most traditional pure sense, I'm certified through ICF. It's more about asking your client deep questions and helping them get breakthroughs, right? So, so once I sat down and I figured out my niche, I started to talk to people who were in that niche. I started to tap into my old networks. I went on LinkedIn, I was marketing my message, I was very clear on my website who I serve. And that's how I started to reach out to my ideal clients.

Pedro 11:53

Interesting. That was my follow-up question, but you kind of answered it already. So that's the way they found you in the first place. So social media, networking, all of that. The senior leaders, right? Now, let's talk business for a second. You know, let's pretend I'm one of those senior leaders. Okay, I look at your content that resonated with me. I'm like, Pallavy looks cool. I want to know what working with her looks like, right? And I eventually book a call, we go through the all the steps, and I am the onboarding uh day, right? So walk me through the structure of how what's what working with you looks like from the client's perspective, for example.

Pallavi Ridout 12:31

Okay. So you said onboarding. So right from the first call up until the very last call.

Pedro 12:38

You can give me a quick scenario if it's like, oh, is it like more one-on-ones, one of many? Do you visit the plan? You know, just having a full understanding of how how does it work?

Pallavi Ridout 12:48

Got it. Yeah. I work one-to-one. So, you know, there there are things like, you know, you coach um a person individually, you can do what is called group coaching, right? That's what you're talking about, team coaching. I specialize in one-on-one coaching uh with senior leaders. So what that looks like is if you have a six-month engagement with me, we would have, you know, at least a call every other week. So about 12 calls in the six-month engagement. I also, you know, take my time to get to know you as a person. So I believe in whole person development and whole person leadership. So when I was in corporate a while ago, I had some leaders who, and I till the date remember this, I was going through a really tough time. My marriage was crumbling. Okay. I was under a lot of pressure to say yes to the CHR role or not. This particular leader was new and they were heading up. Ultimately, I would have been reporting into them. And they said, take some time off and deal with your mess. And then once you're done, come back. We don't want to see any of that here. That was a wake-up call for me. That is not how you lead. We bring ourselves to work. We bring our worries, our stresses when you're driving on the freeway. If you've had a bad driving experience, guess what? You can't just lock up that feeling in the car and say, you sit there, my bad experience, and my I was upset at this driver or they upset me. I'm gonna go into work and I'm gonna be this perfect leader now. That is not how life works, right? So I like to get to know my leaders from that holistic self. So we'll do like a kickoff interview and then I'll get to know them from a career perspective. And whatever they're working on, I'll ask them more questions about them. But I also want to know, you know, what does your personal life look like? What are your successes? What are your challenges? What are you proud of? How were you raised? So once we get to know that, we set up objectives and we set up two to three objectives. I will typically also do what is called, you know, 360 interviews. So I will interview people, keep people around that leader to get perspective, to get raw feedback. It's not a flat page, answer this question. This is I'm going to talk to you, like Pedro, we are talking now, and I'll ask you some detailed questions about the leader and tell me how do they show up on their good day? How do they show up when they're having a tough time? And then I am able to give that leader that feedback. Sometimes if we need to use an assessment, we use an assessment, but it's outcome-oriented, the coaching. It's results driven. It is bound to what they are working towards, but it is also structured in a way that that leader wants needs to be coached. Everybody shows up at a different level. So what I pride myself in doing is matching that style. But at the end of the day, I tell people, what they say, why should we hire you? I tell them my superpower is that I'm in your corner, but I will challenge you. I will not be afraid to call out some things that I see where I might see resistance or I might see some behaviors that might not be good for you. And uh and the person who works best with me is who's hungry for growth, who's hungry for change, who's hungry to, you know, move from A to B, move from being operational to strategic, move from being only task results driven to being people-oriented. You know, you can do a lot of to and froze. So that's that's what I do. That's what the engagement looks like. Typically, if it's in corporate and it's corporate sponsored, there's also something called a sponsor. So usually it's the leader's leader, right? Leader's boss. We also involve them in understanding hey, what do you think they should be working on? So we'll have check-ins with them as well. But everything we do is confidential. The rest of the organization doesn't get to know it. It's between me and the leader. So what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. What happens in the coaching room stays in the coaching room.

Pedro 16:28

I love it. I love it. Yeah, and I'm just taking my notes here. It's outcome-oriented. So everyone listen out there, early day coaches, and I include myself there. Don't try to tie the outcome to a clock. You know, it's there's not a magic that happens when you hit the six-minute mark. It's about the outcome, you know, itself, the result. So thanks for that. I think that's a very powerful reminder. But I have a question here, since you like to push your clients back a little, you know, getting them out of the comfort zone. I'm gonna just do the same. Because in the origin story, you told me you were stressing out a lot, right, in the corporate America, and you you even saw some consequences to your health. By listening to you, it seems like your work seems pretty hands-on, right? We're talking about keynote speaking, we talk about one-on-one engagements. So, how do you think about capacity so you don't stretch yourself too thin?

Pallavi Ridout 17:26

Yes, Pedro, thank you for challenging me. Because sometimes, you know, we may dish out advice, but we don't take the advice ourselves. Love what I do. Like today in my business, how uh the variety I have, I absolutely love it, and I'm good at what I do. So I'll own that, right? So we have to also own what we are good at. It gives me pleasure, it gives me joy, my clients are happy. So some of these activities take a lot of energy and it does stretch me. So I'll give you an example. I was at a three-day conference over the weekend and I was a speaker there. So not only am I attending the conference, I'm networking, I'm being strategic. So whenever you go to a networking event, I'll just give some nuggets of wisdom here to folks. Whenever you're going to a networking event, give yourself strategic objectives. Why am I going? Who am I going to meet? Is it two, three, four people? Who are these people? Right? You can look at the attendee list and make a concerted effort to have quality conversations with them. Instead of talking to 20 people, focus on those few. It's better to have quality versus quantity. So uh so I'm at the networking event, I'm at the conference, I'm doing my thing, and I speak, and I am exhausted. I am just depleted. But it was an amazing session. I got to speak from the main stage, which is, you know, every speaker's dream. But then the following two days, I was also running a two-day, all-day workshop at a client site. Was that the wisest decision? No. But that's just how the cards landed. So now I'm gonna take the next few days off. We just happen to have spring break to decompress, and I'm actively not gonna work during that time. So I find that if I don't manage my um my energy levels and how, you know, if I have back-to-back-to-back events, there is a big cost, a big price to pay. So being aware of that and not overcommitting is critical. In your early journey for people who are starting out in their coaching or whatever facilitation, all that journey, you just you want to put in the hours and you want to put in the time. Just ask yourself, you know, does working 10-hour days where you are mediocre for five hours and great for five, does that make sense? So figure out, you know, the 80-20 rule, the Pareto principle, right? So if you're getting 80% of the result in one place by putting in 20% of the effort, go there versus working 400 hours somewhere else and getting only 20% of the results.

Pedro 19:52

I love the cash uh cautionary tale, you know, about because it you love so much. Seems like you're so happy with the work you do right now that sometimes you need to hit the brakes a little because it's exciting and you love it. But now you're like speaking on and and then in the next day you have a workshop, but it takes a toll, it costs, right? There is a price behind it. So you need to balance that. But understand it's the whole person, right? There is no separation between work polity and personal polity. Definitely. I get that. Now 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 what are you excited about?

Pallavi Ridout 20:34

Yes, what are you excited about? So I will I'll do a little teaching here and then I'll I'll say what it is. So every year, from a teaching perspective, is as a business owner, every year without fail, please do this. I follow uh the Year Compass. So it's a free tool online, yearcompass.com, I believe. And uh a group of consultants out in Europe, they uh this this handy uh guide together where you look at your previous year, you look at all the events from your previous year, you talk about your successes and perhaps your failures, there's all these guiding questions, and then you look at the coming year and you put down what is it, what are your aspirations? You actually draw image if you want to, and that really helps you look at what are the key things in your life. And I'm not just saying your work, in your life that you want to do for the next year. You reflect on your life, the previous year, and the next year. So I've been doing this diligently for the past about I would say four to five years. And um, I have my son do that with me. He's 16 now, so every time he hears your compass, there's this big groan that comes out. But it is an invaluable tool, even if you're a seasoned leader, you're a business owner, or you are a young person, you know, in school to use this tool. So this year, when I did my goals, one of my biggest things is I've been talking about writing a book for a long time. And being a busy single mom running her own business and successful practice and being stretched in so many directions. You're not able to give, you know, everything the the right amount of time it needs to. So I find goal setting is very important. So I set my goal last year actually to write the book and I have finished my first draft. I did accomplish my goal. I had to hire a coach though, right? So we sometimes need help. So don't be afraid to invest in the help you need. This year, the goal is to finish the second draft. Second draft is very messy, by the way. For anybody who's an aspiring author or has done it, you know this. It is messy. It's like taking your baby and like saying, Oh my gosh, my baby's ugly. Now I need to like fix things up, baby. Um, so my goal this year is to get the book out. Uh, there will be, of course, you know, a big you know, social media type of uh marketing, etc., to do with that. And while at the same time continuing with the practice of coaching, speaking, and growing that as well.

Pedro 22:50

Interesting. Okay. The year compass. I'm gonna take notes. Interesting. You're doing that for five years, and also about the book, that's a very interesting angle, which I understand where you're coming from, right? The second draft. I mean, I that's that's a very unique of way of seeing things. And I wanna dive in into one thing here. You know, you mentioned goals, and I've seen people in different spaces, but especially in the coaching space, is that they they they design the goals and they start not meet meeting expectations, right? And then they gave up on even or they start dreaming small, right? They're like, oh, I'm gonna get this wild goal, wild dream, and I don't hit it, and I'm like, is this even something I should be doing? And they give up, or they okay, so I'm gonna slash it in half just to feel good that I can hit something. So, what would you say is the main obstacle or the main shift for you to be able to design, in a way, a big dream, but an achievable one? What would you say is the secret to it?

Pallavi Ridout 23:56

Okay, I talk about this in my book because my book is a memoir. It's a write-up of, and I get asked this question all the time, and that's where the book came about. I have a lot of my senior executives ask me this question is like, how did you make that decision to exit? And then how did you find success now, right? And and you know, being a solopreneur, that too. For a lot of coaches, sometimes we have partnerships, we have spouses, we have others who you know we can lean on, right? I do not have that. I have to make this work. So there is an even more concerted effort, very intentional effort on accomplishing those goals. So in my book, I write about something called micro-momentum. And micro-momentum is a way to get out of that overwhelm of oh my gosh, I have this big goal and I have to do this. So, my advice to everyone is take those small steps and make them count and acknowledge the steps. So it's not necessarily the end of the journey, is what you are just going to wait to celebrate. It's all those little steps along the journey. Celebrate them, acknowledge them. So I'll give you my framework, like how I I work this is you set a goal, right? Whatever that big goal is. First of all, have a vision. Have a vision for this year. This is what I want to do for this around that. And then this is the goal that'll help with that vision. Why do you want to do this, right? Be very clear. Why do I want to do this? What is this going to get me? What is it going to get others? How will it help my business? And then after that, write a goal. And I'm sure you've heard of the SMART format, right? This specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely. But add a why to that. So you have your SMART goal, but why I'm doing this goal. The why is very, very, very important. My why for any of my goals is because I want to have a life where I can travel and I can have fun experiences with my son. I want the freedom and the flexibility to have a life where I don't work all the time. So my goal is to be off about, you know, 20% of the year, go travel the world, do whatever I want. If I want to take a nap in the afternoon, I want to be able to do that. Not a problem. And guess what? I do that unapologetically now. I didn't used to do that up until two to three years ago. And now I'm like, okay, I need to step out and I need to go do an errand, and I'm able to do that. So know your why. My why is a flexibility to have a good, balanced lifestyle. Not balanced, integrated lifestyle. So have your goal, make it smart, do the why, right? And then start to build a plan around that. Build a plan which talks about in this quarter, I will achieve this, in the next quarter, I'm gonna achieve this. So you have four quarters in a year. Break it out and then break it out to monthly. Monthly, this is what I'm gonna do. And then every Monday or Friday, sit down, look at your goal, and ask yourself, what am I going to do on this particular goal that will move me into the target I had set for the quarter? So that's that's a big piece of this. You have to be disciplined. That is not something that comes easy for me. So the why helps me with my discipline is like, I want to do this because of my financial freedom, etc. So I'm gonna do this. Have an accountability partner. Have somebody who you trust, but somebody who's in your corner, but is also not just somebody who's a yes person who will be there, who will hold you accountable. And I find having that accountability goes a long way.

Pedro 27:19

Yeah, I was about to ask if you use the coach for for to help you with that. You just mentioned at the end the accountability partner. So yeah, I get it. Okay. Now, of course, whenever we're aiming towards the next chapter, Pallavy, there's always something we're refining in the present, right? So what are you currently trying to improve or tighten up in your business right now?

Pallavi Ridout 27:37

What am I trying to improve? Um, I would say marketing tends to be something most people struggle with, right? How do you put your name out there? How do you put your word out there? And I am continuously trying to tighten it. So my business model is it's all word of mouth. Or it is through, you know, conferences, networking, strategic partnerships. LinkedIn is a big tool that I use. So it's always about how do you help people know what you're doing and whether you have a newsletter, whether you are keeping in touch on a regular basis with your network. And that tends to be a challenge because you're busy out there doing the work. So there's there's, you know, when do you work on your business? So for me, it's about finding the time to do that marketing on a regular, consistent basis. I will have times when it's really good, it's going well because guess what? There's a little slowness, you know, in the business. So now I'm focusing on this. So there's like the valleys and the peaks. So I'm always trying to make sure there's not too many valleys and too many peaks, it's a little bit more consistent.

Pedro 28:47

Hmm, interesting. I love how open you are about this, also, you know, because that's a common topic in the coaching space. Especially they're so usually they're like they're so designed into the referral side, and sometimes the marketing effort is like not that dialed in. So yeah, I think that's very interesting. Now, I want to go into advice time here. I want to hear some advice, okay, if that's okay with you, because you've been in a game long enough, right? You hear all types of good and bad, you know. So I I want to understand, okay, what's a piece of advice you wish more people actually took seriously? You know, it could be business advice, whatever you feel like it.

Pallavi Ridout 29:28

Seriously? Be very specific in what you offer. You can have multiple streams, like you know, how I'm a coach, I'm a facilitator, I'm an MC, I'm a keynote speaker. It took me a while to build this breadth. So a lot of times when people get this advice, they they they're like, oh no, no, no, no. If I don't do all of that, then you know that means I I'm I'm not gonna be able to do that ever again. No, that's not true. You take one thing and you work on it. And you work on that lane or you work on that expertise. Once you've got that nicely defined, you've got momentum on it, you've solidified it, it's not taking as much effort now, then you go to the next lane. Try to do everything at the same time. You have time to do the next thing in the next few months, a year, whatever it is. Because, you know, when you put effort into two, three, four things at the same time, guess what? Your effort is diluted. So make sure you're pro you're giving more concentrated effort into one space. So that's the advice I received. And I thought it was great advice. And did I listen to that advice right off the bat? Perhaps not. And you know, and then I had to scale back in year year two because I was just all over the place. And then I I narrowed it down and I buckled down, and it was not easy to do that because for for someone like me, I I am always on the move and I'm always I set my mind to it and I go do it, and I'm used to seeing results and delivery fairly quickly. So for someone like me, it's very frustrating when that hap doesn't happen. But I'll tell you what, that frustration was well worth it. Figure out what you want to do and do it one thing at a time.

Pedro 31:12

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

Pallavi Ridout 31:21

The best place to find me is on LinkedIn. It is my second home. So you can message me on LinkedIn and you will get a speedy response from me. And it's uh you can just look me up by my name, Pallavi Ridouut. And I believe there's only one Pallavi Ridd out there, executive coach and speaker. And I I post regularly on LinkedIn. So, you know, if you're looking for similar advice and um coaching frameworks or tips on speaking, I love to speak. So I'm always giving out tips on speaking. I teach speaking skills, presentation essentials, all that good stuff. And I find that that's a very critical skill that most people are always trying to refine. So if you want to follow any of that, uh come find me on LinkedIn.

Pedro 32:00

Okay. You know, there were a few things you shared today that really stay with me. I would say, first of all, the opener with the origin story, when we're talking about you're feeling pain about what you're doing at that present time, you know, I think that's such a powerful force for change, the pain that you're like, I'm done with this. You know, I want to be happy, I want to drive, you know, joy into my life. And then we go to your dad, right? And following dad's footsteps, I love that because I also did that. My dad was uh a vice president of a bank and I started in banking and then I moved to consulting firms and all that, and here I am right now. But I understand where you're coming from because when you have such a powerful figure in your life, at the end of the day, you just want to be a little bit like them, you know. It's and it's such a compliment. I think I don't see it like as a bad thing. I I I imagine you don't as well. So I also uh think it's so important to highlight the fact that you you coach the whole person, you you call that whole person development. That's the term you've used. And I think that's so important because there's a lot of myth busting out there in the coaching space. And I would say, like, oh, separating the personal life from the professional life, that just doesn't happen. Oh, because if you're dialed in and working 60 to 70 hours and you're saying yes to work, you're saying no to something, usually family, right? So I like that, I really like that. And and you know, take some time to deal with your mess and then get back to us. Come on, that those guys really told you that that was a wake-up call, if there's any, you know. I think that's always like a hardship turn into an opportunity. Thank God they told you that, you know, because that's the reason why you're sitting here today and we're having this chat. So, as a last important highlight, I feel like I need to do is like the unapologetically nap in the afternoon. And I'm gonna say that from experience. And the reason I say from experience is like, and I'm sure you must have felt like this. It's like, well, I'm not being productive and I'm feeling guilty. I'm not, I'm doing something that it's not towards X, Y, and Z, whatever's company goal is, and I'm feeling guilty when I should be feeling present, you know, with my family, with who I love. So I think it's about the intention behind it, and you peel it off precisely, understanding what's the real intention and what you want to achieve. And then we can throw guilt in the trash and move forward. This is just my long way of saying, Polavy. I appreciate what you do and appreciate you being here and sharing so openly today. It was great having you on.

Pallavi Ridout 34:44

My pleasure, Pedro, and I wish you many, many unapologetic naps.

Davis Nguyen 34:49

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.