Success Leaves Clues: Elisa Dibble on Career Change & Job Search Success

In this episode of Success Leaves Clues (formerly Career Coaching Secrets), Pedro sits down with Elisa Dibble, a marketing and career coach with over 12 years of experience in staffing, recruiting, and creative industries. Elisa shares her journey from working in the staffing world to building her own coaching business focused on helping high-level creatives and marketers land new roles, secure promotions, and make meaningful career shifts in a short timeframe.

They explore her transition from corporate structure to entrepreneurship, the layoffs that accelerated her leap into coaching full-time, and how she naturally built her niche by working with people she already understood deeply. Elisa also breaks down her LinkedIn outbound strategy, her simple but structured coaching offer, and how she guides clients through either career development or job-hunting pathways.

The conversation dives into time management as a business owner, avoiding burnout while scaling, and the challenge of moving from fully one-on-one coaching into more scalable systems like tools, videos, and group support. Elisa also shares her thoughts on rejection in sales, building consistency in outreach, and why specialization became her biggest advantage.

Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisa-dibble/
Website: https://www.elisathecoach.com/

Transcript

Elisa Dibble 0:00

There's a few factors here. One is I got really good at when it was time to stop working, stop working. When I, the first staffing agency I worked for is a company called Creative Circle. And at that time, they didn't issue us laptops. And I never had a job where I wasn't issued a computer that I took home so I could work from home when needed. So truly, we worked when we were at work and then we didn't work when we were home. And I worked there for almost four years. So it really ingrained in me this sense of when it is time to stop, you stop all the way. So that's been really helpful. The piece that's been difficult about business ownership is my favorite thing, of course, and I've heard a ton of other coaches say this is the coaching part of the business. And so for me, how I've been balancing to the best of my ability the administrative, the marketing, um, all of the other business pieces, the operations, the process building, leaning on Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast.

Pedro 0:55

I'm Pedro, and today I'm joined by Elisa Dibble, whose 12 plus years in marketing, creative, and staffing slash recruiting has given her unique insight from both sides of the hiring equation, having supported thousands of hiring managers and job hunters throughout her career. What makes Elisa's approach powerful and her focus on creating major career change in three months or less, working specifically with high-level creatives and marketers who want to stop wasting precious time being bummed by their jobs? Elisa's expertise spans everything from locking in new job offers and landing promotions to navigating tough money conversations and industry hopping. But her core mission goes deeper than just career moves. She helps clients build work-life satisfaction by aligning their values with their professional path, ensuring they feel re-energized and excited by what they do. Eight plus hours per day rather than just surviving until the weekend. You know, it's a Tuesday we're recording. Alyssa, but welcome to the show. Let's say we let's say and we make it, right? Woohoo! You know, welcome to the show, and I'm excited that you're here. And before we get into what you do now, I'm curious how all this actually started, right? So, what was going on in your life when coaching became more than just an idea?

Elisa Dibble 2:22

Well, so I had worked in the staffing industry for since 2017. So at that point, when I first really started thinking about coaching was fall 2023. You know, ever since the pandemic, things in staffing and recruiting have really changed in major ways. When I first started in the industry, there was definitely a lot more human connection. The recruiters would send their favorite candidates Christmas presents, and we interviewed everyone in person in the staffing agencies' offices back then. And all of that changed with the pandemic. And there were a lot of, you know, from an economy and job market standpoint, a lot of ups and downs. After the pandemic, there was a huge hiring boom in 2021 and 22. That was exciting. And then, as we've experienced since, everything really started dropping. Um, and especially for the people I work with who are in marketing and creative. And so in 2023, I was really feeling disconnected from what I was doing. And I hadn't been seeing as much business business success, I'll admit. I'm a fairly money-motivated person as well. And so I was just feeling sort of stuck. And you mentioned earlier it's Tuesday, you know, not just counting down the hours until your weekend. That feeling of just being burned out and really disconnected from what I was doing is kind of what fueled me starting to seek out different avenues of work and how would I start spending my time. And a few clients of mine and candidates as well told me I would be a good coach. And I had looked into becoming a psychologist. I'd looked into maybe being a career counselor, and those were all really hard, expensive paths that would take a long, long time. And so uh in April 2024, after doing a bunch of research, I signed up with a coach training and certification program to, you know, learn the basics and really understand. And then I started temp testing the biz while I was still working at the staffing company starting summer 2024. So I don't know. It all, you know, they say like when things just really start happening for you naturally to keep the momentum going and follow that path. It it really felt like that. It just all fell into place in a way.

Pedro 5:08

Okay, interesting. You know, it sounds like you were already looking for different avenues for income because at that point that was not something that you were happy with, which I think it's totally be totally reasonable to talk about, right? I think a lot of people are like, oh my god, money and all that. I'm not on that boat. I think it's part of the equation. I love that you do the same, right? And think about kind of the same way. But I want to understand one thing, right? At what point did it stop feeling like a side thing? Because you had it on a on a part-time basis, right? Or a calling, and start feeling like an actual business you are responsible for, especially the leap of faith, right? You were trying to replace an income through coaching, which we eventually did. But when did that shift happen that you're like, okay, I'm gonna take a bat on me right now and see how that goes?

Elisa Dibble 5:54

Yeah. So the staffing agency I had worked for had three rounds of layoffs within a year and a half. And my whole office in Denver uh went from like 15 people down to four. So the rumor at the agency was that there's going to be another round of layoffs in Q4. And so I also only worked on enterprise clients. So I had big business I was responsible for, and all of that big business was moving their consulting offshore. So tough time. And so I another piece of figuring this out was I constantly was like, I might be laid off from this staffing agency. And in the last week of August, they did their rounds of layoffs, kind of raised my hand to my boss saying, Hey, my clients aren't, they're not producing, they probably won't for the next couple of years. I'm doing this thing on the side. It comes down to it, you know, I have something else going on. And so I was part of that last round of layoffs, which another, it's one of those other things of follow the momentum because I got severance and was able to really lean on that as like having a full paid couple of months to be able to push my business forward in a way that I wouldn't, it would have taken me longer had I continued working full-time and doing, you know, the side hustle of coaching. Um, and I was so ready to only focus on coaching. It took up all of my brain space. Anytime I had to do something for my job, I felt really annoyed, like it was their fault to do my job. All I wanted to do was coach and start my business. So it all worked out.

Pedro 7:53

Yeah, it sounds like it. You you kind of forced their hand, but at the same time, you're like, hey, I'm here in case you need it. And that just that pivot just pushed you towards what you were already building for, right? This exact moment. Now, once you were out there helping people, right? This is the part I I really want to know. It's like, who did you naturally end up attracting? You know, because in the the early days, especially in coaching, sometimes we're trying to help everyone, and sometimes that lands, sometimes it doesn't. So, what I'm asking you is when did you realize, okay, this is my tribe, the people I can work best with, you know?

Elisa Dibble 8:26

Yeah. Well, so my the bulk of my experience when I worked in staffing and recruiting was working with people in marketing, creative advertising, and communications. And so, and prior to that, I worked in marketing and advertising before I moved into working and staffing. So I already had a huge network of people in those spaces. I was already really comfortable talking to them and had been comfortable talking to them on both sides. I had some recruiter responsibilities, but I also was on the client management and sales side of the coin when I worked in staffing. So really, I just thought, who are the people I already have a lot of access to that I get along with really well that come already come to me for advice? What type of advice do they come to me for already? And I just thought about that and then kept kept it up, kept trekking on that path.

Pedro 9:23

Yeah, it's only reasonable you tap into your own network, right? That's already established. That's like quick and easy. That makes a lot of sense. Now, let me ask you this let's pretend I'm your ideal client profile, I'm your avatar. Okay. Now, in the first place, how how would I be able to find you, like marketing-wise? I mean, despite the network you already established yourself, let's say it's social media, how does that play out today?

Elisa Dibble 9:46

Yeah, so I the main way that I gain new clients is on LinkedIn through direct outbound outreach. Connecting with people, sending them messaging, telling them who I am, what I do, and how I can help them. And that stems from my days working and staffing. Now I do have this sales background. I don't really have any hangups when it comes to reaching out to people directly and saying, Hey, do you need a service like this? I'm pretty rejection doesn't really bother me after, you know, years of doing this. So I took that learning and applied it to my business. I also think for coaches, all coaches out there who are getting started, your job when you're first starting your business, the most important one is to meet people, tell them who you are, and offer to help them. Um, that is learning and coaching that I've taken from another coach who's a sales and business coach named Stacey Bayman, who I follow avidly. But I really do believe that. That's the best thing you can do for your business. So LinkedIn direct outreach, I use an automatic campaign builder to do that. And then also uh I do have Instagram, I do post some content on LinkedIn that people have told me. I Googled Marketing Career Coach and I came across your website or your LinkedIn and I watched some of your content and decided that I like you. And so I set up this consult. So that's happening more and more now. Probably I really started seeing a pickup of that like four or five months ago. And then also I get quite a few referrals. So that side of my biz is always strong. But yeah, direct outbound outreach. And I have quite a big following on LinkedIn. I'm almost at 12,000 connections and have been building that for a long time.

Pedro 11:53

Okay. Now let's do an exercise here. Okay. Let's pretend I'm that same person, your avatar, your ideal client profile. And uh, you sent me a uh a direct message through LinkedIn or even a referral told me to, you know, hop on a call with you, know more about you. I visited your website, you name it, okay? The channel. Now, I went through the sales process. Let's put it like that. You may have different offers, but let's say we have alignment in the main one or the one you wanna, you're more hot at right now. You want to talk more about, okay? There's alignment. I want to work with you. Now walk me through the process of working with you and the potential outcomes I can expect by joining Alyssa the coach. How does that look like? Alyssa, yeah.

Elisa Dibble 12:39

So I do one-to-one consult calls and I am still a one-to-one coach. This is in process, though, and going to change soon. But I once so I do only have one simple offer as of right now. There's not really a tiered system in place. I sell the same thing over and over again. Uh, there is some ability to tailor inside of the offer, but really I'm just selling something very simple over and over again. All of my clients, if they want to get started working with me, they choose between two different workshops as a step one. A values discovery workshop that's more holistic and focused on aligning with their current values, not just career focused. That's for people who are at a big crossroads in their careers, or building a unique value proposition for them. So they pick one of those workshops. Let's say they pick the unique value proposition workshop. After doing that workshop and building a really compelling North Star statement for themselves, their UVP, they can decide if they want to do a 12-session plan with me. That's 12, 25 minute sessions. And in that plan, they can either choose a proactive path or a job hunt journey. So I really have two sets of clients. I have people who are needing more general career development help. And I have people who are ready to put pedal to the metal in their job searches and want to land a new job sooner than later. And so they filter into two different paths. The proactive path, the career development path has more of a moving target around what we talk about and is more specifically tailored and focused on what they're they're really needing as it pertains to where they're at currently in their careers. Job hunt journey is extremely structured. I tell them all of the exact tools and steps they need to take to land a new job successfully and hopefully efficiently. My goal for my clients is that they land new jobs within four months of working with me. The average right now for high-level marketers and creatives to land new jobs in this current market is actually six months. So I am always striving to problem solve and help them beat that average. So yeah, they get to decide depending on why they're working with me, if they want something more flexible, moving target, or if they want the real structure of the job hunt journey.

Pedro 15:23

Okay, two links. That's interesting. Now, here's the first curveball, right? Your work seems pretty hands-on, right? Pretty involved. We have a one-on-one component. We have the sales process too, two journeys, as it seems like, and also business development. And so it's not just a coaching hat. We had a lot of hats out there. Now, how do you think about managing your time and energy so the business doesn't start owning you?

Elisa Dibble 15:46

Mm-hmm. It's that's a great question. I there's a few factors here. One is I got really good at when it was time to stop working, stop working. When I, the first staffing agency I worked for is a company called Creative Circle. And at that time, they didn't issue us laptops. And I never had a job where I wasn't issued a computer that I took home so I could work from home when needed. So truly, we worked when we were at work and then we didn't work when we were home. And I worked there for almost four years. So it really ingrained in me this sense of when it is time to stop, you stop all the way. So that's been really helpful. The piece that's been difficult about business ownership is my favorite thing, of course, and I've heard a ton of other coaches say this, is the coaching part of the business. And so for me, how I've been balancing to the best of my ability the administrative, the marketing, um, all of the other business pieces, the operations, the process building, leaning on leaning on people that I pay to help with some aspects of it, but also really trying to plan for a week a few things that I'm going to accomplish that will help move the needle for me and making sure that I accomplish them and being pretty strict about it. I also only allow for 20 hours of coaching on my calendar. So people can only book time within this 20-hour window. So I do have most of my mornings to myself to work on my business, and my work day ends at four so that I can clean things up and finish things before five. And I don't know if you've ever heard this. Denver is a place they say that people go to live and like experience nature. And it's not really a very like career-driven city. So I try to take advantage of everything the city has to offer, especially this time of year when it's light outside till eight. And so yeah, I'm pretty strict with my my time to myself, which also makes me more productive during the day because I don't want to work late.

Pedro 18:12

Right. It kind of fits you in a box, right? You had to respect that boundary, the time that you were. It was kind of inserted in your brain by working through corporate for several years, and I'm right there with you. Okay. So I I get that. Now, looking forward a bit, you know, what's the direction you're aiming this business towards? I mean, are you thinking more about growth, leverage, building a team, or refining what already works? You know, what feels most exciting right now for you?

Elisa Dibble 18:36

Yeah, I have some big goals this year. One is that I am going to reduce the amount of time that I'm doing one-to-one coaching by building tutorials, building materials that my clients can do on their own time, and then we meet together to assess and review so that our time is more focused and efficient. I also am really working toward trying to figure out how to no longer do live one-to-one consults in order to sell my services and gain new clients. I love consults actually. I think they're really low stakes ways to meet people and learn about them. And they're almost easier than even sessions because there's just not as much pressure. I don't put the pressure on myself to sell super hard or, you know. But at this point, they do take up a lot of time. And for me to scale and grow my business, I don't think it's very strategic to keep functioning in the way I've functioned to date in my sales process. So that's a big deal to me. Also, I want to be in a place where I can travel and take time off. And if I don't sell or do consults in that time, my income doesn't dip drastically. You know, last year I went to Croatia for two weeks in October and didn't do any consult calls, didn't do any sessions. And November was a tougher, tougher month. I mean, everything was fine, but I was like, wow, guess if I don't sell for two weeks, nobody buys for two weeks, you know. So I'm trying to, I'm trying to move away from that model, which I think was really helpful to date. Like to be able to learn about my clients that way, to have as many reps of sales calls as I've had. I'm sure that it'll help. Those things will really help inform my process moving forward. And I think they were really important. But now it's time to do something different.

Pedro 20:40

I think that's a big crossroad. I see a lot of coaches, you know, getting into. Like, for example, you got to a place that it all it all relied in you, right? It that that made it great because you're so involved. But at the same time, you're trading time for dollars, right? It requires your one-on-one and your energy and you pacing the business to a level or it stops. So here's the tricky part, right? And I see a lot of coaches struggling with that, is like if you want to step away a little bit out of that zone, you had to delegate or even find uh a different way to, you know, impact more people through one-on-many, for example. So how to keep the quality control in check, right? So even if you delegate, it's some something you can a little bit of more trust, have trust on it to run itself by SOPs or or whatever. Or even if it's a one-to-many, how do you deliver not the exact same result because it's a different component, right? But how to keep the quality on check. You do you see yourself in that sometimes debating it internally about how to do that?

Elisa Dibble 21:45

Totally, totally. Especially because a fun part of coaching is pulling things from people and helping them see things in a way that they wouldn't without your help, really. And so it's a crux a double-edged sword, I guess. But I think providing a lot of tools and saying I'm providing these tools to you that are proven in their how they work for people and the results they yield. Just having the faith, I guess, that my clients will use the tools correctly, which I do feel that way. Like I said, everybody that I'm working with, they're high level. So they're 10, 15 plus years in their careers. They work in marketing and creative and advertising. They've had high pressure jobs. They're very generally they're very proactive and just really smart. So I feel I feel pretty comfortable. The group that I'm working with will do things correctly and be excited too. Cause they're just generally really proactive people.

Pedro 22:50

Okay, that good, that's good. I mean it shows about your demographic and all that. So what I'm curious to is like, you know, because even when things are going well, always something under the hood, always something under construction we're developing. So what's uh the main thing you're actively working on or trying to improve in the business right now.

Elisa Dibble 23:08

The main thing is building out video content and materials so that I can adjust my business from being I do one-to-one coaching and we review everything live together to I do some one-to-one coaching. Maybe I have some office hours where people can join um network with each other and I give them the tools they need so they can do things on their own time. Then come to me after they've completed what they need to complete so that we can review that and make sure it's fully optimized and awesome looking. Also I I should note this first step into you know we'll call it group light one to one slash group mix and is more focused on the job hunt journey side of the coin. So the structure that I've built I talk to you know because my niche is so specific I am repeating a lot of the same things over and over again on the daily to my clients. So just using those tools I've developed and the things that I coach on and the advice I give in a way that's more streamlined and efficient. Also for not only for me, like for my clients as well who a lot of them are super busy. A lot of them while some don't have jobs maybe they got laid off or they threw their hands up and quit in a fit of just complete burned outedness or whatever happened. A lot still do have jobs and they're working full time, they have families they want to spend time in the evenings doing things other than job hunting. So building in efficiency so that they're doing stuff quickly is important. So yeah, I think my next the biggest thing I'm working on is building out video content for these tutorials.

Pedro 25:02

You know I'm not sure if I got it right because I'm thinking along right now because I'm thinking about the group setting right and it sounds like a light group setting like you mentioned it has to be a little bit more tactical because you cannot go so much in depth right like why do you want to do this? Why and and keep peeling off the onion the the layers right so to me it makes more sense to be more tactical in a group setting or or am I too off here?

Elisa Dibble 25:29

I think for what I'm considering is because the amount of time I spend with clients will be minimized. So I'll be able to have more clients all at once which right now if I hit 35 active clients at a time I am pretty capped. There's also I just recently changed to 25 minute sessions and prior I was doing 50. And so I'll have a day where I'm in six hours of coaching sessions back to back and I love it but it's there I can't do anything else after that. I'm completely drained and I need to you know go for a walk and touch grass or whatever the youths are saying these days. But yeah my my goal is to feel what that volume of people feels like. And then when I say group, the having office hours where current clients of mine are even previous maybe if I'm building in I've considered building in a type of like evergreen program like pay me this much money you go through this part of the process the first six months but you can join my office hours whenever you want down the road. But the office hours aspect being more a place where people can show up and ask me really direct questions so that everybody else can also hear about job hunting. And yeah not necessarily that's where I'm like doing coaching on really specific topics that are more nuanced if that makes sense.

Pedro 27:04

That makes sense makes a lot of sense. Okay now before we close this out right we're gonna have all the links in the description but if someone resonated with what you shared and wants to follow your work what's the best way uh for them to connect with you where should they go?

Elisa Dibble 27:17

Definitely LinkedIn and it's just Alisa Dibble is my LinkedIn. So first name last name yeah just connect with me on LinkedIn send me a message I would love that we can set up time to meet, chat. If you're a coach, I love meeting other coaches and when I first started my business something else that I was really rigorous about and it's kind of fallen off now that my schedule's more filled but I tried to once a week meet a new coach and talk to them about their business and try to understand how they were setting things up, what technologies were working for them. Um and that was really fun. And actually I met a coach who on through LinkedIn who lives in Montenegro and when I went to Croatia last year I was able to spend two days with her and we are real friends now. So it was yeah it was a really fun effort but I would love to meet more coaches always.

Pedro 28:13

You know there were a few moments from this chat today that really still stood out to me. I would put it like first I love the origin story right and the moment you mentioned that instead of waiting on them to lay off you you kind of raised your hand so you got some severance there but at the same time you're already building your own business. So it's not like a curveball or something that caught you by surprise and sometimes I see a lot of people acting through the emotions and those tough moments and it's not that easy because we have bills knocking on the door we have you know all of that going on and sometimes if you have that pressure mindset shows up and and then you're when you're looking at it you're charging less than you should that can be on a going on a spiral right so I I really really liked the way you framed it very you know strategic. Really like it. Um another thing that caught my attention it's like I think it's based on your background because I see a lot of coaches out there struggling with this is the problem to reaching out to people you know and doing the sales and all of that because if you if you don't have sales you you don't have a business right you you already know that. So but the fear of rejection is something I feel like a lot of coaches struggle with right they're like feeling like they are being rejected and not the process or the offer itself is like such a personal thing for some of them. And I love the reminder there is nothing like and sometimes it's just doing the reps right just moving to the next one and eventually you're gonna create that thick skin which you created obviously and I do have some past in the sales process too and all of that so we're we're aligned on that. At the end of the day also it's like you're being you're being super open about the struggles you're being super open about the new offer the way you see things you know this is my long-winded way of saying that I really appreciate you taking the time and being open with this you know it was great having you on oh thank you thank you that was really nice to say yeah I had a lot of fun isn't it fun to talk about oneself exactly well great having you want you know been a pleasure thank you so much yeah everyone connect with me on LinkedIn it was lovely doing this I'll talk to you talk to you later got here that's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets.

Davis Nguyen 30:31

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