Alex Barker: How I Built a Business That Runs Without Me

In this episode of Success Leaves Clues Podcast, host Davis Nguyen sits down with Alex Barker, pharmacist, entrepreneur, and founder of a successful career coaching company, to discuss the lessons learned from building, scaling, and transforming a coaching business.

Alex shares his journey from being an unhappy pharmacist to helping hundreds of pharmacists land better careers while growing a team-driven coaching business. He opens up about the challenges of hiring the wrong people, managing an underperforming team, creating consistent revenue, and making difficult leadership decisions that ultimately changed the trajectory of his company.

Together, Davis and Alex explore what it takes to build predictable lead generation, improve sales, create high-performing teams, and develop systems that allow a business owner to step back without sacrificing growth. They also discuss the importance of taking action, embracing tough conversations, and overcoming the obstacles that keep many entrepreneurs stuck.

Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-barker-pharmd/
Website: https://thehappypharmd.com/

Transcript

Alex Barker 0:00

You know, the reason why I quit one of the reasons why I quit my job was because I didn't like any most of the people that I work with. They they uh it was a tough and work environment, you know, and I had one good friend in the pharmacy, but I remember thinking if I ever create my own company, like I want to really enjoy the people that I work with. But I think I conflated that with family. Like I wanted to take care of people. And unfortunately, I convinced myself that people were doing their job well when in actuality, like either they were incompetent or just barely squeaking by.

Davis Nguyen 0:38

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. Welcome to another episode of the podcast here. We're actually here at the Purple Circle event in Tulum this year. So you can see it in the background here, a lot of waves coming in. We're expecting more members to come in the next 24 hours. But before that, we had one Purple Circle member who arrived early, Alex Sparker here. So, Alex, I'm super excited to have you on the podcast this episode here, just because we've been working together now for a number of years. And but for anyone who doesn't know you, tell us a little about yourself. Like, who do you coach and how'd you get started?

Alex Barker 1:40

Yeah, so I coach pharmacists on career development, helping them get into new and better jobs. I've been doing that officially since 2017. Um, and how I got it started was I was a very unhappy pharmacist, started figuring out career stuff for myself, and then my friends started asking for help, and I was like, maybe I should be helping even more people. And so fast forward to now, we have a team of a little about 15 people, and we coach around 100 to 120 pharmacists every year.

Davis Nguyen 2:15

Nice. And when you were starting out in coaching, uh obviously a lot of people start off their coaching, they're trying to figure things out. What are some of the things that you did early on? You're like, wow, why did Alex do those things?

Alex Barker 2:26

Um, oh, there's a lot of lessons. Um, in the beginning, I followed a very specific model to like coach people for free to give them a taste of what coaching is, just because coaching is it's weird, right? It's most people have not heard of a coach in a professional setting. So when when you say like, oh, I could coach you and and help you do something, they have no idea what that means. You know, you're not training me. So like I would I would meet with people, hear about their situation, and be like, well, how about you know I coach you for an hour, and uh, you know, if you like it, then we can maybe talk about doing more. Um, and it worked, it converted fairly well, but it it also was a lot of time. Um so that was one hard lesson learned. I think a lesson that you uh taught me was like hiring for people, people's potential versus hiring for competency. So um because I'm a coach, like I like to believe that people are really capable of a lot of things. But when it comes to actually doing it, yeah, people's yeah, people's abilities um would disappoint me, but I would keep pushing and trying and trying to figure out where to where they could be effective in the organization. But um it was only until recently, like the last few years, that I started hiring for people's actual present ability, not hopeful ability. Um but I feel like a lot of coaches struggle with that too, because they also want to coach their employees. And then I think you actually know some of like my previous people who work for me. They they have their own businesses now, and it's because of how like I manage them. I very much like encourage their own entrepreneurship versus like them developing the company, they develop their own. So uh those are just a handful of the many, many mistakes that I've made.

Davis Nguyen 4:39

Well, let's talk about that because that's actually really important, right? As we're growing our business, it doesn't mean that you're growing hundreds of thousands of people that you're managing, but that is a common mistake that I see that we see verb circle. Like, I remember when we first started working together and you were telling me one of the exercises I had you do was give me your org chart, rank the people, and then I'm like, Either Alex has a really great team, or he's inflating these scores across the board. And after I decided, I'm like, okay, he's inflating. We got we gotta go too. But yeah, that's like a common theme I see is that a lot of coaches, we want to coach our team members. We're like, oh, if we can coach our clients, we can definitely coach our team. And as a result of that, we hire for potential, but then it costs us time and energy and money to compensate for that, right? Yeah, and so the way that I think about it too is the flip that you want to make is you're hire for people with batteries included.

Alex Barker 5:26

Yes. Uh I like that analogy because it implies that they can just start with the job. Um, and it's it's hard to switch that part of my brain off. I actually just had to let someone go recently, and it it took me about a month to really come to terms with it. Just because I I still hold on to I want to help them. They really like it here. I want to give them another chance. But um, yeah, when you're running a company, it's really hard to make progress uh with towards your goals when you're working with incompetent people.

Davis Nguyen 6:03

Exactly. Because like three things happen, and I write this in our upcoming book. But one is that you're going, you're frustrated at this person. And I'm I'm just saying is that if I'm going to bed and I'm thinking about you and you're not my wife, you gotta go. That's one way, yeah. Right. No, number two is that not only are they causing you to lose sleep, lose money, lose time, lose energy, but everyone around you also sees that you're putting up with a lower bar. So slowly over time, it doesn't happen right away. But the people who are actually contributing, the five-star players, they start saying, ah, you know what? Alex is pretty lax about this. I'm just gonna do 80% of what I know I'm capable of because oh, he's letting this other person do way less than me. And so it becomes this culture of the bar gets lower and lower, and the more people you hire, that gets lower and lower. And of course, it affects your clients, it affects you, it affects your reputation. And the third thing that it does is it robs that person of the person that you're hiring of their actual potential because they're struggling. And I find that it comes in two flavors. There's some people who actually know that they're struggling and they try their best, but they know they're struggling, they're going to bed, they're having the same conversation, like, man, I'm struggling here. And other people, you know, like almost like happy ignorance, if you will, where they don't know they're struggling. And it's almost like a surprise when you let them know that hey, you're actually not doing a good job. Uh-huh. But all three of those situations, no one wins. You don't win as the owner of the business, your team doesn't win, and that person that you're holding back doesn't win.

Alex Barker 7:31

Yeah, it's hard. It's an emotional thing uh to both hire and retain and fire those incompetent people.

Davis Nguyen 7:40

And I remember that was like one of the three pillars that we worked on. Obviously, we worked on consistent leads, consistent sales, but also getting that consistent results and operations was a huge one as well. Because I remember when you were in, you had such a huge team, but when I looked at your schedule, you're like, you're doing everything. You're like superhuman, Alex going in and rescuing everyone.

Alex Barker 7:58

Yeah, yeah, that was a part of it. Um, I think I was taking way too much responsibility uh for my team's results or lack of results. Um, yeah, when we first started working together, I probably had I think like 10 coaches at the time, and then two salespeople, and then three or four operations people. And it was too much to manage. Um and every time I would find out the little details of what is actually happening, I would find things aren't actually happening the way we intended them to. Um and that was, I think, hard. Sometimes it's nice to pretend like you shut the, you know, the the I don't know, the lid of the business, and you just think, yeah, the machine's running. It's fine. You know, I don't need to look at the oil gauge or the, you know, any of the speedometers that are telling me like, oh, something's wrong. Um I think it's because I just like trusting that people take care of it with the best of intentions, which unfortunately that's not a good way to run a business.

Davis Nguyen 9:09

Yeah, and I remember it showed up not just in the emotions, but I remember all the marketing campaigns, everything else, you have to go in. I'm like, Wait, why are you hiring these people if you're gonna just read you to our work?

Alex Barker 9:18

Yeah, yeah. It it maybe because I I'm in the past, I think I was putting way too much responsibility on myself to do and manage everything. So I would say I've given that up. And now I just hire competent people.

Davis Nguyen 9:38

Yeah, like those type of people that you just know that you look at them like, wow, I don't want to lose them. Like, for example, we're recording this podcast right away, but obviously our event manager who's putting this together is making sure this all happens. Like, hey Davis, you need to be here. You're interviewing Alex after this, we gotta be able to welcome dinner and so forth. It's just a lot easier when you have people who might like properties included, you go in. I remember just myself too, when when I was growing my consulting offer and I had people at that stage, I was just I was like, I have more team, but why am I working harder and why are the margins falling? It's like it should be the opposite. I should have more time, I should have more money, I should have more margins. What's happening? And that's when I realized that sometimes you you hire people that aren't the right fit.

Alex Barker 10:19

Yeah, and I think it's hard to come to terms with when that happens. Um I think because you often think it's actually that's what I thought about the person that I just let go. It's almost easier just to keep paying them to do the crappy job that they're doing versus letting them go and now I have to do that job. Um, but it's best for the business.

Davis Nguyen 10:46

It in the short term, it it hurts really. It hurts, it really hurts. And then I'll give you three scenarios of it, too, is oftentimes someone's failing and they're actually creating a net negative for the business, and they come to you and they're like, Oh, I found another job or whatever, you're like, Whew, all right, glad you're gone. Well, you could have gotten rid of that person earlier, right? And then there are people who are like just kind of doing okay, and you you realize that if you fire them, you have to take it back, or it the team has to be distributed. But you realize in the it just gets worse and worse and worse over time because now they learn more, they do more, you're further away from it, and it becomes harder and harder in that pain. I've been in that situation before where you're where you have that. And then there are people who you hire, and then if they leave, you're literally like, oh hey, let's go on a call right now. What can I do to make sure that you stay? Right. Those are the people you want. But what the the level ones, the ones that like go away, you should have fired, those are hard. The level, those are easy in hindsight because they fire inside, you realize you should have fired them. But level two is hard because like they're doing something, they're not doing nothing, but you're like, oh, I just don't want to do this thing again. Yeah.

Alex Barker 11:50

Yeah, I definitely had a couple level ones to get rid of. Um the I mean when we first started working together, the business was in such a sorry state that a lot of people weren't even doing anything. They were on staff, but not contributing. Um but that wasn't the first thing we worked on, I think. Um, I think the first thing we worked on was the ICP, making sure we had the right target market and the right offer.

Davis Nguyen 12:24

Yeah, because we needed a cash flow coming in. Because at the point, you hadn't paid yourself, obviously the team and other aspects of it as well. So we needed to get the cash flow going. I think yeah, that was the first thing that we worked on was clearing out who your ideal client profile was. And it's funny because you were working with pharmacists and you thought you were already niche, and I'm looking at the data and I'm like, hey, you can go niche more niche.

Alex Barker 12:42

Yeah, we uh we could, and that was scary to niche down further. I remember being apprehensive about thinking even more targeted about what we were selling and promoting. Um, but it worked. Um yeah, I don't remember the exact numbers, but before niching down, we were doing maybe like five, ten calls a week. Um, it wasn't enough to sustain the team. And then after that, I remember we booked out the entire like we did a promotion in November, and then I think we booked out the entire December and January. Um it was incredible. Um, and and yeah, I mean it it more than doubled our revenue at the time. But it also led to like further down the line problems. We had to get let go of coaches, and I'm you remember I had to coach everyone again.

Davis Nguyen 13:35

I remembered a period of time because I I told you because we we got the cash flow going in from obviously the new ICP, which means that you had consistent lease, sales were really easy. Your sales team was like, oh my gosh, we have so much volume, let's work on the holidays and everything. But then we discovered other problems, which was I remember Sarah came to one of our meetings, your your COO and said, Oh, hey, uh Davis, we need to talk about all these escalations, these coaches. And uh we looked into it, and I remember, and I remember the first phase of the new team, which was, well, we gotta get rid of the team members who shouldn't be there anyways.

Alex Barker 14:06

Yeah, you know, the reason why I quit, one of the reasons why I quit my job was because I didn't like any most of the people that I worked with. They they uh it was a tough in work environment, you know, and and I had one good friend there.

Davis Nguyen 14:27

Yeah, you could have landed on our drinks.

Alex Barker 14:29

Yeah, you could have. Um I had one good friend in the pharmacy, but I remember thinking if I ever create my own company, like I want to really enjoy the people that I work with. But I think I conflated that with family. Like I wanted to take care of people. And unfortunately, I convinced myself that people were doing their job well when in actuality, like either they were incompetent or just barely squeaking by. Um all of my coaches were great, but like we had no systems, we had no way of measuring their success. Um, like I only heard problems from them. They were mostly well-intentioned people. It's just I had to shift and change everything about the coaching program in order to get success for people. So it was tough. It was it was tough, but it ultimately like worked out quite well.

Davis Nguyen 15:31

Yeah, and you got some killer new hiring processes, and I was really proud of the growth too. I remember um going to the cannabis, it was like a new Alex who had a higher bar than before because you're like, oh, this is a great A candidate, and then you're like, nope, nope, nope.

Alex Barker 15:44

Yeah, it was it was nice to be like, oh yeah, we can get a top A candidate or a top quality candidate. And being able to be picky was really compelling because I had never it was kind of just like before it was just a pharmacist would come along and say, like, I think what you're doing is so cool, Alex. Can I help? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can help. You know, no interview, no uh uh confirmation of their skills, just like, yeah, let me show you let me show you a a coach call and just do what you do. Like, I didn't even check their calls. I didn't even confirm that they were coaching. Uh it was very uh laxadaisical.

Davis Nguyen 16:33

I I totally get it. So I I volunteered at a food shelter. Well, so so many people that podcast know that I'm from Atlanta. I grew up without much money. My family relied on going to a food shelter, which is actually where we're gonna be having one of our wedding ceremonies later this year, is at the food shelter. And of course, you and Megan are definitely invited, and the girls too, by the way. Thank you. We have a Sunday Joseph B. Um But I I get it. As in I grew up eating at the food shelter, and then I later on volunteered at the food shelter, and when I could, I started donating to the food shelter while still while still volunteering. And you kind of take whoever you can get, right? Because it's kind of like it's free labor. But the problem is that in business it's not free labor because people are paying you, they're costing you your time, you're paying them. And I I used to think that too, like maybe a business should be a family. Like they always say that it's like, hey, we're family here, but I realized no business is not a family, as in your family is a family, yeah, a charity is a nonprofit, yeah. A business is like a team, everyone has to earn their spot. And if you're not helping everyone else trying to win this championship, wherever that may be for you, you gotta go.

Alex Barker 17:36

Yeah, it's hard to accept, um, but you're you're right. When money's online, um and like I I reasoned it emotionally at the time, like I can't afford to keep paying you to do a bad job. Um because we clients are not gonna pay for it, um, and the business can't stay profitable. Um it was a hard decision. Um I wouldn't say that it was it went as well as I had hoped, but I mean I let go of like 11 coaches.

Davis Nguyen 18:10

And a lot of them were your friends, I remember that. They they started with you.

Alex Barker 18:14

Yeah, some of them, I mean, they some of them still are my friends, uh, some of them are are not. But um, yeah, it was hard. It was very challenging.

Davis Nguyen 18:25

But eventually you made that transformation, and of course we transformed not just that, the marketing team, the sales team, the ops team, just across the board. But what was life like afterwards? I remember one day you were like, hey Davis, I'm just gonna spend the next two weeks playing video games now. And oh by the way, Megan and I have a cruise to go on after. Wait, what was that like after?

Alex Barker 18:46

I think the best way to describe it is at ease. Um it's not that the business doesn't have problems, it still has problems to solve for. But it's it's now like we've got systems in place. We we know that if we just do the right activities, it leads to the best results. Um whereas before, um, there was a lot of anxiety. It was funny, when I was just by myself and I had like an admin assistant, I never felt anxiety. I just knew, okay, I just need to talk to people and then I'll get clients and it'll be consistent. I just gotta keep doing this activity. But in I mean 2024 is when we started working together, I think. Yeah, around that time, yeah. Before that, because I had a team and I mean we we're probably spending, I don't know, anywhere from 10 to 20k a month on just some labor costs. Like when we had a bad month, I remember just like panicking um about anything related to refund requests or um you know having to chase people for payment plans. Um and and there was just so much angst. And I would say now, like I, you know, I haven't worked for the last two weeks. And like I'm not worried, I'm not thinking about the business, I'm not whereas before there's always like a little bit of a a shadow, a demon chasing me around going like, oh, you oh, you know, you you may you may not make a sale this week. And so if that happens, you know, you may not have to pay yourself. Um it's it's nice to say, like, oh yeah, before working on these systems, there were months where I didn't pay myself. I don't think there's been a month since we turned things around where I haven't paid myself. That's a nice, you know, that's a good win for me and my family.

Davis Nguyen 21:10

Yeah, it's it's an amazing win for you for making into girls as well. And obviously, you put in the effort into doing it. And I I I get that feeling too. I remember when I was starting my coaching business, it's just so easy that it's just you, you just get some clients, it's just you. But as you start to have more responsibilities, a mortgage, kids, and so forth, like you feel like there's a certain number you have to hit. And then, of course, if you add team members, then it's like, oh shoot, I gotta go pay them. And there's this higher sense of responsibility that comes in. And when you don't have consistent leads, you don't have consistent sales, you don't have consistent operations and results, then any of those falling down gives you that panic in that month where you're just so afraid. Like that feeling I I hear project is like, I just wanna stay in bed and not come out, that type of feeling. Yeah, I've had moments like that. Yeah. Luckily you you don't have those anymore. I I love it because what is it? When we were scheduling this podcast, they were like, Yeah, Davis, I'm for you anytime. It's gonna Not just one call, but ever not for free any day.

Alex Barker 22:02

Well, I should be while I'm here. Um But yeah, you know, even recently, you know, the first coach that we hired together when you we were working together, Liz.

Alex Barker Tulum Podcast 22:11

Liz, yeah.

Alex Barker 22:11

Yeah, she took a full-time job. So she's no longer working with us. And I know that beforehand that would have caused not panic, but just like a lot of pain, frustration, oh, we gotta hire again. Um but within a week, we had two great candidates. Um no, actually more than that. We had more candidates, but then we hired two people within a week and a half. And I did have to coach people, but it was like I have the I have the time.

Alex Barker Tulum Podcast 22:44

Yeah.

Alex Barker 22:44

So it wasn't like adding on a huge responsibility to help out with the team. Um so yeah, the the main benefit to me is just ease of mind, not freaking out over every little thing, and just continuously doing the same things. That was another major curse before was focusing on all of the different ideas that I had in order to drum up new business. I don't do that anymore.

Davis Nguyen 23:18

Yeah, you don't have to reinvent the wheel, crush everything else. I well, I'm gonna say there's just two really good points here, which is one, when you a lot of coaches, a lot of entrepreneurs are in that situation where if you don't have consistent leads coming in, you know, you're always worried about where your next leads are coming in. You're always trying to think, all right, if I do this, if I do that, what if I do this? And you eventually burn yourself out. And even if you have consistent leads, but you don't have consistent sales, you're always worried about how do I do I give you a discount? Do I chase after this client? Do I fight for this refund? You take on clients you shouldn't be taking on, and then all these things happen and it affects your business spirals downwards. And if you have consistent operations, it only takes like one key person leaving for you to feel like, oh my gosh, I'm in panic mode, gotta go back into the business. But you achieved all of that, the consistent leads, consistent sales, consistent results, and of course you get to enjoy that with the moment as well. So that's the first thing. So super excited about what you can do in less than two years. The other item that I think is really impressive too, that you underplayed here is that No. Me undersell? Yeah, yeah, you underplayed here, is that you're a lot calmer too, right? You mentioned before you had to go in rescue, try everything. I remember one of the things it's like I remember one of the calls you came in, it's like, Davis, I'm really bored because I I don't have to come up with new marketing ideas, I don't have to jump on sales calls, I don't have to go on coaching calls, I don't have to do it. Like, yeah, you get to chill and earn what you build. And it's like a new reaction, like it's it's it's almost like a new skill you have to learn where you're just so used to something around the corner's going wrong, I gotta jump in. But eventually you reach this point where no, it just works.

Alex Barker 24:48

Yeah, it actually created the space for me to um reprioritize some things. So I've been able to develop more friendships, which I think in business, like it's very easy to feel super lonely. Um we have a house in a very rural area, and um because of that extra time, I realized like wow, I have no friends with similar problems or challenges or ideas. And because of that extra time, I kind of moved most of my work from like Wednesda uh Monday to Wednesday, and then like Thursday, Friday were just time to build new friendships, do phone calls with other entrepreneurs. Uh, I joined a few masterminds with others, just start making more time for friends and hobbies too. I I started cooking. Sorry, cooking? Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm I'm decent. My wife would probably say I'm pretty good. Like fried rice, uh, I make a good chicken soup, uh, I cook some bread.

Davis Nguyen 25:56

Wait, we're at the resort. You want me to get access to one of the kitchens? You can cook one of our meals.

Alex Barker 26:00

No, I want to be taken care of like a baby. No. I don't wanna I don't wanna do anything. No. But the whereas before, um I was stressed all the time. You know, I'd work uh seven, nine hour days, and I would just be so tired. Like all I could do at the end of the day is just play video games.

Alex Barker Tulum Podcast 26:24

Yeah.

Alex Barker 26:25

Like I had no time or energy to want to pursue friendship or be with other people. Um and now I am filling up my time, you know, on Thursday and Friday with other things, and some of them are really exciting, um, and some of them are just fun activities, you know. Um and I who knows what would have happened if I was on the same trajectory without working through the systems together with you. I mean, who knows? Maybe I would have figured things out, but uh it would have been way more stressful. And I may have shut it down too, um, and just got a job again. But I remember being at that point beforehand where I was like, I don't I don't know if this is gonna work out. Um so yeah, it's been quite a journey. I'm really glad to get to this point.

Davis Nguyen 27:20

It's it's been an amazing journey to to go through. I remember when you came first came to me, you're like, hey, this is how much runway we have before. I'm just like, alright, screw it, we're done. And I was like, okay, well, let's move fast, let's uh let's get this going.

Alex Barker 27:30

Oh yeah, man. I remember telling them for the team, like, yeah, we have until February. Um, and I think it was like October, November. Yeah, it's like October, November when we started, yeah, around October. Yeah. Because we weren't, we weren't we had a few sales, but it wasn't a lot. And I just remember being like, oh man, guys, I'm not paying myself anything. We got until February to figure this out, and if not, like you're all without a job. Um, but pretty much all of them were pretty loyal. They all were like on board with trying to figure things out. It was great to see them step up to the plate.

Davis Nguyen 28:08

I I remember that because I remember that conversation because some you tell us how great your team were. Like some of them say, Hey, I don't need to get paid for this. You can hold the end-of-year bonus. Some of them were like, Yeah, you know what, I can reduce my my pay for a little bit. And then I'm not sure if you remember this. There was a conversation that happened right after January, after you guys had the big months and the end of the year. Sarah came in and was like, Hey, by the way, Davis, we gave raises to everyone. I'm like, Can I see those years? Okay, okay, before we before we I approve these, that's not these are really high here. That's uh that's a s just because you have money now doesn't mean we just throw it back into the business.

Alex Barker 28:39

Yeah, I remember that raise discussion. Yeah, that was It's a fun conversation though.

Davis Nguyen 28:44

It was better than uh, oh, so who do we let go of? It's more like, well, who do we give this surplus to? Yeah.

Alex Barker 28:51

Yeah, so I mean overall it's been a really great transformation for the business. Um there's a ton of things still to do and work on, and I'm excited about them. And just a better mental headspace. Yeah. Less stressed, and I think enjoying the journey is the right move.

Davis Nguyen 29:14

Yeah. I I I like that. And then uh one other thing too, Dina, you you also undersold, underplayed, but now you guys travel pretty much year round now with the kids.

Alex Barker 29:24

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah. We we live in Michigan and we had to suffer through a lot of winters, uh, which are very depressing. But yeah, we've been living in the South now for two years in a row. Uh we live in Mexico and and South America, uh, or Southern United States. Um, yeah, it's been great.

Davis Nguyen 29:45

Well, congratulations, you guys. And uh what advice do you have to someone who's watching, let's say it's Alex from a few years ago, and Alex is thinking, oh, do I shut down my business? I have too much overhead, I don't think that's it. Like, what advice would you give to a coach in that situation?

Alex Barker 30:01

Uh yeah, you can't have a breakthrough without a breakdown. Um whatever awful things you're going through, it's trying to show you something. Um and if it's resistance, you know, it's a combination of a couple things. You could be avoiding the thing that you need to do. Um it could be your ego preventing you from like getting the right help from the right person. Um, because more than likely the solution is outside of yourself. Um I I think at every like breakdown in my life, it's always been someone else, either reframing my position or seeing it from a different point of view, has really given me the energy to like, okay, this is really bad, but we can learn something from this and move forward. Um it's funny, you know, since talking with you, I've met a lot of coaches who are struggling. And I almost find every time the thing that they're struggling with is like the thing they just need to do. Um, like, yes, there's things that they need to learn, but usually it's like, oh, I'm avoiding talking to enough people. Um I don't want to make sales, I don't want to do this or that. And it's like, just if you just do the thing, you'll solve your problem. Um and I think for me at the time, it was like refusing to double down uh that I was I was resisting. I was refusing to stand on one thing for my audience, and that's the thing that really just helped make a lot of the problems go away that we had.

Davis Nguyen 31:48

Love that. Just taking action, knowing what to work on, and actually working on it. Very simple, a harder set easier said than done on that one, of course. No, it it took uh um it took a community of people.

Alex Barker 32:00

Yeah.

Davis Nguyen 32:00

Yeah, we got there. And of course we're at this retreat. What are you looking forward to most of this year's retreat?

Alex Barker 32:07

Um probably making new friends. That's a good one. Yeah. Um Yeah, you have a uncanny ability to to rope in some cool people. Um it was, you know, I was here for last year's retreat and I really enjoyed it and made some really good friends, made some deep relationships deeper. Um so yeah, that's that's probably the most thing, the biggest thing.

Davis Nguyen 32:32

Excited for that. Yeah, nope, nope. Last retreat, I remember that when you got the UNFU others, got the million dollar circle award and beyond and all that. And so look forward to the next one as well. And you also have a panel coming up, too. You excited for that one? Uh yeah, yeah. It should be fun. We'll we'll see. You were telling me that it might be a two-on-one. Well, okay, obviously for context for anyone here. So out so we have a panel going on. Like, what do you do when the business runs without you? It cash flows. Do you one focus on your life, Alex? Do you focus on family like Alex did? Or do you just try to exit the business, similar to what David and Cody will be talking on? Or like Cody, like, hey, how do I go? How do I sell my business for nine figures? And so it's like, and he did. So spoiler alert, he'll share more about that. As in it's always fine. He's just waiting for the he's just waiting for the HIV. That's why he was so happy earlier when you came in, and he came in and he was like, So yeah, once I hit a certain net worth, it's like I just wanted to get these tattoos. And he's like, he got he got it right before the retreat. Super awesome, cool. I'm so excited. I said excited for our journey ahead as well, and thanks for being on the this episode. Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me. Alright. More details about Alex below, and uh excited for anyone who is interested in growing their impact, their income, and their time. Check out the link below to find out more about Purple Circle and how we can help you and your business. 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 joinpurplecircle.com.